DISEASES OF GROUSE 109 



with the experiences of other observers. 

 Over - preservation or over - stocking, 

 parasitical attacks, atmospheric influences, 

 insanitation, improper or excessive or 

 insufficient food and water, destruction of 

 vermin below the line of prudence, and 

 several other reasons, have been put 

 forward as the producing causes of this 

 fell disease. But they have all as yet 

 failed to bring conviction, and we are still 

 waiting for an authoritative pronounce- 

 ment. 



Happily this matter was lifted out of 

 the slough of empiricism and the cock- 

 suredness of the limited local observations 

 some six years ago, when the Board of 

 Agriculture and Fisheries appointed an 

 able and representative Committee to 

 investigate the causes of, and if possible 

 discover the remedies for the so-called 

 "grouse disease," which, whatever it be, 

 has on periodic but frequent occasions 

 during the last sixty years or thereby 

 caused so much mortality among grouse 

 and ptarmigan. To Lord Lovat, who is 



