DISEASES OF GAME BIRDS 371 



that the young ones were well feathered on the legs and the old 

 birds were not. What had happened to those old grouse? 

 Had they had the disease and recovered from it, or had they 

 only had that predisposing indisposition that causes the leg 

 feathers to fall off and the other feathers to look dull ? If they 

 had had the disease, then it is not as fatal as Dr. Klein's 

 experiments suggest. The chances are that tapeworm or 

 any other parasites, or even prolonged wet summers or bad 

 food, will predispose the grouse to the reception of bacilli, 

 possibly by midge bites on bare legs conveying disease from 

 the sick to the healthy. This view is supported by the fact 

 that the grouse never get the disease, however bad their food 

 and however bare their legs in the hard winter weather, but 

 only when it is warm and damp and there are lots of midge 

 flies. 



It has often been said that all game birds and domestic 

 poultry are subject to the same diseases, and it is frequently 

 suggested that the grouse disease, pheasant disease, and fowl 

 diseases are all one and the same. That is an extraordinary 

 belief, because pheasant disease nearly always occurs when the 

 foster-parents from the barn door remain perfectly healthy. 

 These views have had a still further upset in the summer of 

 1906, by the fact that a large number of foster-mothers died of 

 enteritis, but without any of the pheasants becoming sick. It 

 is quite clear that the pheasant disease of the rearing-fields is as 

 much a mystery as it was before pathological research began, 

 and is one of those things that is waiting for investigation. 

 How it is spread is not even known. Post-mortem examinations 

 without bacteriological research are freely made, and opinions as 

 freely offered, generally ending in a recommendation to keep 

 fewer birds. This advice is very wisely not followed by those 

 who want more, not less, sport. And the preservers have this in 

 their favour, that pheasants increase in numbers every year in 

 spite of disease. Game preservers are in these times well aware 

 that opinions given on a mere inspection of the internal organs 

 can neither lead to true knowledge of the cause of deaths nor 

 even to wise suggestions of how infection may be avoided . 



