DISEASES OF GROUSE 131 



a diseased bird has departed from the 

 standard of the healthy grouse. As re- 

 gards the cause and symptoms of the 

 diseases affecting grouse already noticed, 

 it was of course known that in suffering 

 birds there is a loss of activity, their flight 

 is slow and limited in length, their call 

 becomes feeble, their feathers lose lustre 

 and become ruffled, the eye is dimmed. 

 But these external symptoms may be 

 associated with several diseases. Nearly 

 all of them occur in the two diseases 

 already noticed which are responsible for 

 the greater number of deaths among 

 grouse." 



In the popular mind grouse disease is 

 largely identified with tapeworm, three 

 forms of which are found, sometimes in 

 incredible numbers, in the interior of 

 grouse. Their chief abode is in the caeca 

 or blind-guts of the bird, of which there 

 are two of great size in the grouse, equal 

 together to the whole of the rest of the 

 alimentary canal. These caeca or appen- 

 dices perform very important functions in 



