340 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



grouse-disease is seen to be singularly powerful in its effects. The 

 Common Bunting and Yellowhammer are specially susceptible 

 to its action. Some of these birds die at the twenty-fourth hour 

 after inoculation. Sparrows in the proportion of about 70 per 

 cent, also die with characteristic post mortem appearances. But 

 one notable fact crops out in the course of Dr. Klein's researches. 

 No result follows when the birds, or mice, or guinea-pigs are fed 

 with the germ of grouse-disease. This proves that the vitality 

 of the germ is either destroyed by the digestive juices, or that 

 the natural method of inoculation is certainly not through the 

 stomach. But, as Dr. Klein remarks, it is otherwise with the 

 lungs. A bird inoculated with grouse-disease was placed in a 

 cage with two healthy birds. The inoculated bird died during 

 the second day ; and the other two birds were found to be ill the 

 day following, and died of the disease in the course of the third 

 day, with a full development of the germs in their blood and in 

 their lungs. Again, two wire cages were placed closely side by 

 side. One contained a Yellowhammer affected by the disease 

 after inoculation. It had been ailing for some days. In the 

 adjoining cage were six healthy Yellowhammers. The two 

 cages, says Dr. Klein, were covered with one cloth. All six 

 birds in the second cage became ill with the disease in two days, 

 and died during the next day, with all the symptoms of the 

 disease. It is clear, then, from these details that the grouse 

 disease is propagated not in food, but through the air. It is 

 essentially and primarily a lung or respiratory trouble, which, 

 as might naturally be expected, draws its infection from the air, 

 and, of course, from pre-existing cases of the disease. 



To the subjects treated in the second part of Dr. Klein's book, 

 namely, fowl cholera, fowl enteritis, and "cramps" in young 

 pheasants, we need not now refer. Our concern for the moment 

 is with grouse-disease only, and upon this enough has now been 

 said to explain the line of investigation pursued by Dr. Klein, 

 and the nature of the results arrived at. The question is one of 

 extreme interest to naturalists, and of even greater importance 

 to those sportsmen who pay large rents for grouse-moors. The 

 latter will naturally ask, "What is the remedy?" An enquiry 

 not readily answered. 



The only measures likely to be available in checking the 

 disease are not so easy of application. It is all very well to say 



