PHYSIOLOGY AND ANATOMY OF KED GROUSE 115 



Passing now to a consideration of the small intestine, and its pathological 

 manifestations, the first noticeable point is its external appearance when really 

 full of Davainea calva, as is so frequently the case (see Plate Small in . 

 XXIX., Fig. 1); the gut is distended, and appears fatty, thin- testine - 

 skinned, yellow in colour, and rather translucent. Within, there are often 

 great masses of Davainea, but no redness of the mucous membrane. 



In No. 1219, a cock Grouse of 21 ounces, found dead, the whole of the 

 lower straight portion of the small intestine was enormously distended with 

 food not long eaten. The crop contained Calluna tops, a few obstruc- 

 insects and some seed - heads of a Ranunculus. The gizzard con- s ^\i 

 tained plenty of quartz and food ; the duodenum contained Hymeno- mtestme - 

 lepis ; and the upper small intestine a few Davainea. The caeca were almost 

 empty, and although no obstruction was visible there was obviously something 

 preventing the admission of food to the caeca from the lower main gut. The 

 distended intestine measured nearly 2^- inches round, and the thickening of its 

 walls showed that the condition was not merely temporary. The mucous 

 surface was roughened with greyish-white, swollen mucous glands which may 

 have been the cause of the trouble, since they probably failed to supply 

 sufficient moisture to the food for its passage into the caeca. It was a condition 

 analogous to excessive and prolonged constipation, and it is evidently a rare 

 condition in the Grouse, for no other case like it has been seen. 



A punctiform pigmentation of the serous surface of the small intestine is 

 not uncommon. It occurs in small areas which are thickly dotted with 

 black pigment. Probably it results from a previous inflammatory 

 condition, or small localised peritonitis, which may possibly have tionof 



surface. 



been caused by the masses of Davainea within the gut. Grouse No. 

 1182 and No. 1739 are good examples of this condition. In the latter the 

 pigmentation was more or less generally distributed over the serous covering 

 of the caeca as well as of the small intestine, and as the bird had been wounded 

 by shot some considerable time before it was killed, there is a likelihood of 

 the peritonitis having been more general than local, though there were enough 

 worms and congestion in the intestines to account for the appearance. 



It is not a common thing to find the small intestine acutely inflamed, or 

 very red or congested, but in Grouse No. 1113 the straight portion was 



. . Inflamma- 



excessively red with orange-coloured mucus, evidently blood-stained, tionofin- 



c testine. 



and a very large number of Davainea. This, however, was a 



