112 THE GKOUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



Again, No. 1846 was a hen Grouse of 15 ounces only, found dead on 



May 6th, 1909, in Perthshire. This bird was very backward both in moult 



and in the development of the ovary. There was no attempt to put on 



the nesttna, 1 plumage. But the cause of death was an excessive 



Congestion . ? 



of food in repletion of the lower oesophagus and proventriculus. From the level 



oesophagus. 



of the base of the heart to the point of admission to the gizzard 

 the mass of food in the oasophagus and proventriculus formed a uniform sausage- 

 shaped mass, which seems to have caused death by pressure upon the heart 

 within the thorax. Why this collection of food should have failed to find 

 its way into the gizzard it is impossible to say. Mechanical obstruction there 

 was none, either by unusual food or by stricture. These were at once looked 

 for without success. Some spasmodic stricture of the entrant sphincter muscle 

 of the gizzard may have accounted for this, though there was no direct 

 evidence of it. The gizzard and its contents were perfectly normal, and there 

 was apparently free passage both in and out of it. The crop contents were 

 unusually moist with water and watery mucus. They consisted only of green 

 Calluna heather-tops, but there was a much smaller quantity in the crop than 

 in the proventriculus. There was no appearance of damage by shot or other 

 means, such as might account for paralysis of the lower oesophagus, though 

 this would, perhaps, be a plausible explanation, as the damage done to a nerve 

 in the neck by a stray pellet could have been healed without leaving any 

 noticeable scar, and yet the nerve remain severed, thus putting out of action 

 the parts it supplied. 



No. 1311, a hen Grouse of 16 ounces found dead on March 30th, 1908, 

 in Perthshire, was a case presenting almost exactly the same appearances as 

 the above, and with no clearer evidence of its cause. This bird was very 

 thin, and was found not far from a dead grey-hen ; but the grey-hen showed 

 no sign of similar trouble. In this Grouse the crop contained a small amount 

 of large pieces of woody Calluna heather. The proventriculus was perhaps a 

 little swollen, but the lower half of the oesophagus was intensely engorged with 

 food, making again a sausage-shaped swelling within the thorax, which must 

 have exerted a fatal pressure upon the heart and blood-vessels. The bird was 

 not suffering from Strongylosis to any noticeable extent, that is, the caecal villi 

 were not engorged. 



It is a possible solution that the crop having received something irritat- 

 ing in the food, acted suddenly and completely, emptying itself into the 



