124 THE GROUSE DISEASE chap. 



died in previous years, notwithstanding the utmost 

 care and attention, made it, therefore, clear that we 

 had to deal with an epidemic disease. The principal 

 symptom of the disease, viz. the impaired movement 

 observed by the keepers in many parts of the country, 

 south and north, and the cause of its appellation, viz. 

 " cramps," made it also clear that the disease is con- 

 nected with disease of the limbs, and it is hardly 

 credible that this should everywhere be the same, and 

 the result of an accident that had everywhere escaped 

 the watchfulness of the attendants. But what did 

 surprise me is the fact that both in the epidemic in 

 Scotland, which I then observed, as well as in young 

 pheasants sent to me through the Field from the 

 south of England that had also died of the " cramps," 

 the remarkable condition of the bones — femur and 

 tibia — should have entirely escaped notice. And, 

 moreover, a correspondent of the Field thought it 

 " absurd " my saying that the young pheasants dying 

 of the " cramps " have this condition of the bones, 

 viz. partial and complete dissociation of the ends of 

 the shaft. I can only repeat that in no single instance 

 of young pheasants dying of the " cramps " have I 

 missed this condition, but I must add that I know of 

 an epidemic disease among young pheasants leading 

 to death in which this condition is not found, and 

 which animals do not die of the "cramps," but are 



