STRAY NOTES ON GROUSE-DISEASE. 67 



grouse, which are hut " animated heather." This straining 

 of Nature's gifts to the utmost, must necessarily tend to 

 cause deterioration in the quality of hoth, rendering them 

 more liahle to injurious influences, or less able to resist their 

 attacks. 



The grouse-disease appears to be divisible into two sepa- 

 rate and distinct types. One, the most common, is the 

 lingering form, which is slow in its operation, gradually 

 reducing its victims to mere skeletons, when they die 

 apparently of emaciation. The symptoms of this malady 

 are, first, in the grouse affected seeking lower ground, 

 especially along burn-sides and wet places, sometimes right 

 down in the valleys where sound birds are never seen ; and, 

 secondly, in the change of plumage, which loses its fine 

 glossy sheen and fades to a dull dingy hue, most unhealthy- 

 looking to a practised eye. Their legs and feet at the same 

 time lose the feathery "stockings," and become bare and 

 draggled. 



The other type of disease is much more subtle, more 

 rapid in operation, and less easy to foresee ; indeed, its 

 approach is often hardly perceptible it comes " as a thief 

 in the night." A few years ago (1884) we had in Northum- 

 berland an eruption of this sudden form of disease, of which 

 I propose to describe the principal features. We had heard, 

 during the spring, intermittent reports of the appearance of 

 disease in various quarters, and particularly on certain 

 specified moors. After the abundant season of 1883, grouse- 

 shooters were nervously apprehensive of what might occur ; 

 but up to the middle of June their fears were certainly base- 

 less, and (at least on the writer's ground) there was no reason 

 to suspect the approach of disease. In the course of several 

 visits to the moors during that spring, I could detect no 

 signs of anything really serious nothing worse than an 

 old bird or two " found dead." Early in June I examined 

 the ground carefully. Nothing could well appear more 

 favourable. The young broods had hatched out in great 

 numbers. Many could already (on June 1) fly two hundred 

 yards or more. The majority, however, were still "in 

 down " in various stages. Only a very few nests contained 



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