118 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



the bird was diseased or not. The right side of the heart is often enormously 

 distended with black blood in a bird that has died of disease. This condition 

 of the heart, however, must not be taken as necessarily present when the 

 caecum is diseased. 



When the caeca of a large number of Grouse, all more or less suffering from 

 Strongylosis, are opened up and examined in various stages of freshness, and in 

 some cases after a lapse of many days since death took place, the appearances 

 are very variable. 



In some birds the upper portions of the caecum are almost transparent (see 

 PI. xxxi., Fig. 6), but this transparency is certainly increased by the post- 

 mortem maceration of the mucosa. The longitudinal ridges, moreover, gradually 

 diminish in breadth and in villosity as the blind end is approached. The 

 thickenings so conspicuous in some birds are far more abundant at and towards 

 the open end. The ridges are sometimes very obviously alternately large and 

 small, giving four broad and thick and four narrow and thin (see PI. xxx., 

 Fig. 5). 



In bad cases the villi are intensely congested, and in a certain number 

 of cases there is evidence of haemorrhage having taken place here and there. 

 But extensive haemorrhage does not occur in Strougylosis, or at any rate no 

 indication of extensive haemorrhage has been seen in any bird dissected. The 

 reasons which lead to the belief that there is always a loss of blood as a chronic 

 symptom in this disease are that the congestion is always present, and is often 

 excessive ; that small haemorrhages have been seen, and that in some advanced 

 cases there is every appearance that one would expect to find in anaemia in 

 a bird. It must be allowed that without Dr Fantham's blood examinations 

 this would be an insufficient explanation. In some birds the pale, bloodless, 

 fatty and degenerated aspect of the tissues of the internal organs was most 

 suggestive of anaemia, and of chronic toxaemia. 



It is possible to find quite a number of very healthy looking birds with 

 good weights and yet with a large number of Trichostrongylus and a considerable 

 Tfieho- amount of villous reddening. This goes without saying in such a 

 iuheaUhy disease as Strongylosis, which is essentially a progressive ailment. 

 Everything depends upon the strength of the bird, and its power of 

 resistance. There is no doubt that some birds will retain their weight 

 and continue for some time in apparently perfect health, with a very great 

 number of Trichostrongylus in the caeca, and a considerable amount of con- 



