LOCAL CONDITIONS AND HEALTH OF GROUSE 307 



of another serious outbreak which, especially in the Border 

 districts, seems to have rivalled 1873 in severity ; but at this 

 early date the interest in the subject does not appear to have 

 found expression in the form of recorded observations, and the 

 evidence is scanty and inconclusive. 1 



1875 



1879 



The records have been obtained by a systematic search of 

 private memoirs and gamebooks and published material, and 

 of the latter the annual reports contained in the Field newspaper 

 have been of the utmost value. Most of the material was 

 collected at a time when the more serious attacks were alone 

 thought worthy of mention, and the earlier maps in consequence 

 contain a smaller number of recorded outbreaks than would 

 have been the case had a note been made of every moor on 

 which dead birds had been picked up. As the knowledge on the 

 subject increased it became evident that the milder outbreaks of 

 mortality were only different in degree, and not in kind, from 



1 But vide chap. xv. p. 443. 



