THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
heather burned, the policy of heather -burning, advocated by other members 
of the Committee upon other grounds, receives additional support. 
“ The practicability and value of a periodical cutting of the heather 
requires further consideration by those acquainted with local conditions ; 
but if practicable, such a measure should not only be a means of ridding 
large areas of the moor of infective material, and of bringing about a rapid 
increase in the ‘ food * heather area, but might also be applicable to those 
parts of a moor, and in those seasons of the year, when burning is 
impossible.” 
A second and entirely different parasite accounts for the death of young 
birds in summer. It is well known that after an excellent hatching -season 
the young grouse during the first six weeks of their life are often 
practically wiped out. This misfortune generally occurs when the moors 
are being left perfectly quiet, before August 12, and causes grave dis- 
appointment to many an expectant tenant. The cause of this second 
murrain is a coccidium, whose complicated life -history has been worked 
out by Dr H. B. Fantham. This protozoan parasite, known as Eimeria 
aviumy first passes into the birds in the form of an oval cyst, which is 
picked up in the food, grit or water. The moors are said to be peppered 
over with millions of these cysts, which are very resistant to changes of 
temperature and moisture, and live for a long time. In the duodenum 
the chitinous wall of the cyst is dissolved by the pancreatic juices, and 
eight spores are liberated. Each of these enters one of the epithelial 
cells lining that part of the intestine, and ultimately destroys it. As 
the coccidia multiply, which they do rapidly, other portions of the ali- 
mentary canal, especially the caeca, are attacked, and the birds soon 
succumb to what has been called Coccidiosis. After a time males and females 
are produced and fuse, and result in cysts which pass from the bird and 
are scattered all over the moor. The chief external symptoms of this 
disease are said to be diarrhoea, loss of weight, and feeble flight. Intern- 
ally there is inflammation of the alimentary tract, the lining membrane 
of which is destroyed, the blood corpuscles undergo a marked change, 
and an anaemic condition prevails. “ Coccidiosis may be spread from moor 
to moor by the agency of flies. The maggots of certain flies readily eat the 
cysts, and it has been shown, both experimentally and on the moor, that 
the cysts pass through the bodies of both maggot and fly undigested and 
unharmed.” Coccidiosis proves equally fatal to the chicks of fowls and 
pheasants, as well as to young pigeons. Dr Fantham ’s account, published 
58 
