384 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 



locality 'is that a disease of some kind has worked havoc among the grouse." 



— (F. J. D., Owego, N. Y., in Forest and Stream, November 30, 1907.) 



Rensselaer county, N. Y. — "I have heard one or two unauthentic 

 reports of young grouse being found dead during the latter part of July and 

 August."— (Charles K. Hall, East Schodack, N. Y.) 



Connecticut. "Some one found several old grouse dead near their 

 nests with a discharge from their nostrils." — (Dr. L. B. Bishop, New Haven, 

 Conn.) 



Massachusetts. "A good number of broods hatched and got half 

 grown and then disappeared. I know of one bunch of eight fine birds that 

 disappeared between August 5th and 12th. It seems that nothing less 

 than some widespread disease swept them off."— (R. L. Eaton, South 

 Middlesex, Mass., in Forest and Stream, December 7, 1907.) 



Ontario, Canada. ' There is no doubt that the agency at work was 

 an epidemic disease which has swept through the country from the infection 

 of which few have escaped. Many woodsmen have told me that they have 

 found partridges dead in the wilds, while I myself have picked up some." 



— (Alfred J. Horsey in Rod and Gun, January, 1908.) 



Several other letters from parties in Massachusetts, Connecticut and 

 New Jersey tell of broods that were watched and that suddenly disap- 

 peared in midsummer. But all such data will apply equally well to the 

 parasitical theory. 



Many other people ascribe the scarcity as due in their opinion to a 

 disease, but just as many disagree with this and think it due to some other 

 cause. To have determined this absolutely it would have been necessary 

 to have performed a bacteriological investigation of the birds found dead, 

 but unfortunately the havoc was done long before the wide-spread scarcity 

 of grouse was known. 



In the early part of the last century the grouse of England and Scot- 

 land were severely decimated by an epidemic of the "grouse disease." 

 Just as in the present case in this country, many theories were advanced 

 to explain the destruction of the birds. Intestinal parasites were found in 

 great numbers in grouse dying of "grouse disease," but they were found 

 equally numerous in grouse that were otherwise perfectly healthy. After 

 careful post-mortem and bacteriologic investigations, however, the trouble 



