"GROUSE DISEASE" 191 



death of birds in good condition was typical of Klein's disease no case of 

 Klein's disease had yet been seen. 



At this date the only form of disease observed was a very widespread 

 mortality of "piners" owing to what appeared to be a form of starvation 

 resulting from a chronic congestion of the csecal mucosa. This Character 



i. . m ,1 , of disease 



condition of the mucosa was produced by an excessive number of observed 

 the nematode worm known as Trichostrongylus pergracilis in the mittee. 

 caeca, and was quite comparable to the form of " Grouse Disease " described 

 by Cobbold. 



The view that two distinct forms of disease had for many years past been 

 confused under one term was supported by the literature of the Committee's 

 subject, for all previous writers on Grouse and "Grouse Disease" had ported by 

 referred to a difference in character to be noticed between the disease ture. 

 outbreak of one year and that of another, or between the appearance of the 

 victims at one season and another in the same epidemic. 



By adopting the view that two distinct diseases had been confused, much 

 of the disagreement which had been in evidence from the earliest days, as to 

 the predisposing causes of " Grouse Disease," could be explained. 



The following abstracts suggest that there were two different agencies at 

 work destroying Grouse in large numbers. 



William Houstoun of Kintradwell, Brora, for instance, says: "At that time 

 it took the tapeworm type, and the birds all came down to the seashore to 

 pick up particles of salt; but, when the disease next appeared, it had a 

 different form, and I fear we are as far as ever from a solution of the 

 cause. I opened three birds in the last stages of the disease" (the pining 

 form) "and they all presented the same appearance. The liver like a clot 

 of coagulated ink; intestines distended with a yellow feculent matter; and 

 crop full of undigested but fresh and green heather tops." 1 



These were presumably cases of Cobbold's Strongylosis, since the distension 

 of the intestines "with a yellow feculent matter" suggests the appearance 

 characterising the caeca in that disease, and the victims were all piners. 



Again, Macdonald, in his book on "Grouse Disease," described the earlier 

 stages of the epidemic as being much more virulent, the birds being found dead 

 and dying in numbers by the water-courses, "which latterly was not the case." 

 The plumage in the earlier attacks looked different, the feathers were dirty 



1 Macdonald, " Grouse Disease," p. 140. 



