150 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



covering of three portions of the gut. The adhesions formed 

 a firm support, and presumably the egg was for a short time 

 carried safely. Eventually, however, it was broken in the 

 peritoneal cavity, and the bird was shot, and owing to her 

 unwillingness to take flight was forwarded as a case of 

 suspected disease. 



Diseases of Disease of the skin is a very rare thing in wild Grouse, and 



generally results from the irritation produced by innumerable 

 ectozoa or external parasites, such as ticks and lice. 



An example was furnished in an adult hen Grouse of 20 

 ounces, shot on August 12th, 1908, in Lanarkshire. The bird 

 was very unprepossessing in appearance, as the feathers had 

 failed to make their way through the skin of the head and neck 

 especially, and to some extent all over the body. The skin 

 was of a very deep yellow colour, and there were sebaceous 

 cysts of varying sizes scattered all over the bird, and so thick 

 on the head and neck that hardly a feather appeared. The 

 gamekeeper's view was that it looked " like a hen that had 

 sat herself out on frosted eggs." There was no other abnor- 

 mality discovered except the large size of the spleen which 

 measured 20 mm. in length and 11 mm. in thickness. 



Another case which resembled the last occurred in a Grouse 

 where Ixodes and Goniodes had again produced a great number 

 of scabs and sores and warty excrescences all over the face 

 and head, and especially in the neighbourhood of the ears and 

 eyes. 



