302 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the nest contained three eggs of the Sedge Warbler and one egg of a 

 Cuckoo; on the following day a portion of the shells of the eggs was alone 

 remaining. It is worthy of remark that two Cuckoo's eggs were found in 

 the nest of a Hedgesparrow, together with four of the Hedgesparrow's own 

 eggs. A curious fate attended a Kingfisher which had built a nest in the 

 bank of a small pond in the Park. The pond stands close to the head 

 keeper's house ; there are usually Ducks upon it, and the Deer and Scotch 

 cattle are in the habit of going there to drink. The nest was known to be 

 there, and the bird had been frequently seen going to the nest. One 

 morning a person visiting the place found the bird with nest and eggs 

 crushed as flat as a pancake, and a mark of the expanded foot of a bullock 

 was very evidently imprinted on the surrounding mud. That Skye cattle 

 are not entirely innocuous to birds is further proved by the fate of a Swan 

 which died here in May last. These cattle, when they have calves, are apt to 

 become very fierce. In this case a heifer had become troublesome, and had 

 frightened several persons in the park. It was being driven near a small 

 lake, and, finding a Swan on the bank, it deliberately tossed it up into the 

 air. The Swan lived for several weeks, but at last died from the effects 

 of the treatment. — G. W. Harcourt (Nuneham Park, Oxou). 



Grouse Disease. — With reference to my remarks on this subject in the 

 last number of ' The Zoologist ' (p. 965), I have received the following 

 interesting communication from Lord Walsingham: — "June 9th, 1887. 

 I read with much interest the extract from ' The Zoologist ' which you 

 were good enough to send me. Among the Grouse which you examined, I 

 should be inclined to think (c) was the only one that had the real Grouse- 

 disease — namely, that in which Cobbold's threadworm, Strongijlus per- 

 c/racilis, was found in the cseca. It has certainly occurred in some places 

 in the South of Scotland and in the North of England. The Duke of 

 Roxburgh told me that, had he been asked to do so earlier, he could have 

 sent up any number of birds from Berwickshire, where the disease has been 

 very destructive. It has now ceased in places where it was most severe, but 

 it must have been very partially distributed. My moors in Yorkshire have 

 been quite free from the true epidemic, although a few birds died from some 

 cause or otlier after last shooting season : perhaps a stray shot may have 

 accounted for one or two. As I am on this subject, I send you two memo- 

 randa made after a conversation with Lord Ormathwaite a few days ago, one 

 of which bears upon the question of featherless legs. He tells me that in 

 August, 1872, — the great Grouse year, — when shooting at High Force, 

 he well remembers Raiue, the head keeper, after a day in which nearly 

 1000 brace were killed, holding up a fat plump bird, one of two killed 

 that day, ivith no feathers on the legs, and saying, ' I shall not see 

 any of you gentlemen here for three years to come.' This prophecy 

 of tlic sweeping effects of the disease which be had detected was fullilled 



