HEATHER BURNING 
NYONE who is interested in the subject of the preserva- 
tion of grouse, or the management of a grouse moor, 
/ should, if he has not already done so, read the excel - 
I lent and exhaustive Report issued by the Committee 
i of Inquiry on Grouse Disease, 1911. 
This Report deals with the life history of the Grouse 
in every particular, each subject being dealt with by a practical expert, 
and may be considered as the last word on a very interesting topic. 
The Committee was appointed, as most shooting men know, to ex- 
amine into the causes of that mysterious and devastating malady known 
as “ Grouse Disease,” and, if possible, to find a remedy for it. The 
scientists who aided the Committee examined hundreds of dead grouse, 
the contents of their crops, made careful anatomical examination of 
their intestines, and to put it shortly, the conclusion they came to is as 
follows : 
Apart from the question of whether Klein’s pneumonia has any exist- 
ence in reality, all the outbreaks of disease amongst grouse which 
have come under the observation of the Committee can be as- 
cribed either to Strongylosis or to Coccidiosis, the only two diseases 
which the Committee now' recognize as causing widespread 
mortality amongst grouse. 
Strongylus pergracilis (Cobbold) is a worm which is nearly always present 
in the bodies of grouse. If the bird is strong and healthy, i.e., if it is well 
fed and unwounded, this worm has no great effect on its well-being, but 
should the bird lose strength and condition the worms get the upper 
hand, increasing very rapidly, and gradually causing death. 
Coccidiosis is caused by a microscopic protozoal parasite, Eimeria avium^ 
which infests the lining epithelium of the alimentary canal of grouse. 
Young chicks are far more susceptible than adult birds, and in order to 
prevent as much as possible the ravages of these parasites it is necessary 
that the grouse should be healthy and well fed. 
The Committee went very carefully into the food question, and on 
page 83 of the Report there is an instructive table, giving the monthly 
dietary of the grouse for the year, by which it is proved that the species 
of heather, known as Calluna vulgaris, is their staple food ; they eat the 
young shoots, flowers and seed heads of this plant, which provides, 
roughly speaking, from 80 to 90 per cent of their food throughout the 
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