5 I t 



NATURE 



[October 26, 1911 



THE GROUSE AND ITS AILMENTS. 

 The Grouse in Health and in Disease: being the Final 



Report of the Committee of Inquiry on Grouse 



Disease. Two vol-.. Vol. i., pp. xxiii + 512. 



Vol. ii., appendices, pp. vii+140 + 11 plates (41 



maps). (London: Smith, Elder, and Co., iqii.) 



Price 2I. 2s. net. 

 \ LTHOUGH, as its name implies, the Grouse 

 i \. Disease Inquiry Committee was formed to in- 

 vestigate the nature and causes of the mortality which 

 has been so prevalent of late years in the one species 

 of game bird peculiar to the British Isles, it has 

 accomplished a great deal more than this. For in 

 the handsome volumes before us we have the life- 

 history and organisation of the grouse, coupled with 

 those of the various parasites by which it is infested, 

 described in a manner never before attempted in the 

 case of any other wild bird. This magnificent piece 

 of work, it should be added, has been carried out from 

 start to finish by private effort and enterprise; for 

 although the committee was officially appointed by the 

 Board of "Agriculture and Fisheries in the spring of 

 [905, its funds have been entirely furnished by private 

 subscriptions. The whole investigation is, indeed, a 

 striking, and we believe, a unique example of what 

 can be done by the combined efforts of sportsmen, 

 gamekeepers, field-observers, and biological experts; 

 mkI in Lord Lovat, the chairman, and all those who 

 have worked with him are due the gratitude of 

 naturalists and sportsmen, not only in the British 

 Islands, but throughout the world. 



The first volume opens with an introduction by Lord 

 Lovat, in which are recorded the formation of the 

 committee, the scope of the inquiry, and a general 

 summary of the results of the investigation. Then 

 follow six chapters by various experts dealing with 

 1 he natural history of the grouse in its normal con- 

 dition, among which special reference may be made 

 to Mr. E. A. Wilson's elaborate and careful account 

 of the changes of the plumage, both in health and in 

 disease. Since, however, much of this has already 

 appeared in the Zoological Society's Proceedings, it 

 will be familiar to many of our readers. Part ii., con- 

 taining ten chapters, is devoted to the diseases of the 

 grouse; while the third part, with the remaining seven 

 chapters, treats of the management and economic 

 aspects of grouse-moors. The second volume, con- 

 taining only 150 pages, is devoted to lists of the names 

 of the committee, correspondents, and subscribers , 

 together with a number of statistical tables. 



Since various notices of the progress of the inquiry 

 have appeared from time to lime in Nature, the pre- 

 sent review must be short. It will accordingly suffice 

 to mention that grouse Suffer chiefly from two diseases, 

 namely, strongylosis, due to a thread-worm, Tricho* 

 sttongylus pergracilis, and the so-called coccidiosis, 

 caused by the sporozoon now known as Eimeria 

 avium. The- former attacks adult birds, and may 

 accordingly be regarded as the chief cause of the 

 great epidemics ol "grouse disease" which have in 

 past yeat wrought such destruction. The latter, on 

 the othi 1 hand, .is has been recentlj mentioned in 

 NO. 2 191, VOL. 87] 



our "Notes" columns, in connection with a paper by 

 Dr. Fantham on coccidiosis in poultry, confines its 

 attacks to young birds, which are either killed out- 

 right or recover; this disease, which was discovered 

 during the investigation, can, therefore, have little or 

 nothing to do with the great epidemics amont; adult 

 birds. In the report the parasite of coccidiosis is 

 referred to as Eimeria (Coccidium) avium. This, we 

 may point out, is misleading, since to the systematist 

 it would indicate that Coccidium is a subgenus of 

 Eimeria, whereas it is really a synonym of the latter 

 which has been discarded on grounds of priority. If 

 this rejection be definitely accepted, we may suggest 

 that it would be advisable to rename the disease 

 eimeriosis, since it is obvious that if there be no such 

 melius as Coccidium the retention of the name cocci- 

 diosis is illogical. There would, moreover, be the 

 further advantage that we should have but one name 

 to remember in place of two. For a somewhat similar 

 reason, Dr. Shipley suggests on p. 207 of the first 

 volume that strongylosis should be renamed trieho- 

 strongylosis, although there is the genus Strongylus. 



The account of the life-history of the thread-worm 

 of the grouse is written by Dr. R. T. Leiper; Dr. 

 Shipley communicating a general account of the group. 

 (Nematoda) to which it belongs. The sporozoon 

 (Eimeria) is discussed by Dr. Fantham, whose article 

 appeared previously in the Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society. As mentioned in the " Notes " 

 columns of Nature some time ago, this intestinal 

 parasite especially affects the duodenum and caca (un- 

 usually long in the grouse), and has two develop- 

 mental phases, namely, an asexual schizogony, and a 

 sexual form in which cysts and spores, suited to a 

 life outside the host, are produced. 



Ol less importance, from the point of view of the 

 sportsman, are the tapeworms of the grouse, which 

 are described by Dr. Shipley. Although the birds are 

 attacked by three species of these organisms, two only 

 need be mentioned here, namely, the large Davainea 

 urOgalli and the small Hymenolepis microps, ol which 

 the latter is by far the more dangerous to the life of its 

 victims. 



As regards future prospects, the great hope appears 

 to lie in the proper method of managing the moors. 



"To put it briefly and in practical language," writes 

 Lord Lovat, "moor-management is tne science of 

 distributing the stock of birds over the moor, so that 

 at no period of the year can any area be so infested 

 by the strongyle worm as to make it a source of 

 danger to the least well-nourished bird in that area." 



R. L. 



CLIMATIC CHANGE. 

 Palestine and its Transformation. By Prof. E. 

 Huntington. Pp. xvii + 443. (London: Constable 

 and Co , Ltd.; Boston and New York: Houghton, 

 Mifflin and Co., inn.) Price 8s. 6d. net. 



SEVERAL Mats of travel in Asia Minor, Persia, 

 India, and central Asia, and a prolonged study 

 of the arid and semi-arid regions of those lands, have 

 furnished Prof. Huntington with special qualifications 

 lot investigating the effect of physical environment on 



