The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-22 00:00:00

THE GROUSE DISEASE.

(From the Edinburgh Courant.)
A correspondent in Morayshire says:—" I have never
seen so many deaths among grouse in any former year,
and I have no doubt that it will take a few years to got
clear of the disease—it will linger loss or more for two or

three years." Another correspondent writes us his opinion
at great length from Ballater. The following is an abridg-
ment of what he says —" The disease appeared about
the beginnig of July last season, but few birds compara-
tively speaking were affected by it till the April of the pre-
sent year, and from that time till June the deaths came
thick and fast. When the mortality first began If. and
the birds in good condition, but after a little time they

became poor in flesh. The disease was similar to what
we had seven years ago, and occurred about the same time

of year. The diseased birds are almost always collected
about springs, rivulets, and water -si,ks. In a time of
disease the birds do not hatch so well as usual. The
stomachs of the dead birds aro full of tapeworm, and the
heart and liver discoloured. Moro cocks than hens have
died." The tollowing letter, which is printed in full, is
from a person who is, and has been fora period of 18
years, head keeper on extensive moors in Aberdeen and
Banff shires. It was written two months ago:—" The
disease appeared first early in January, and carried off a
good many birds, but not more than we lost in the spring
of 1866. In the end of January the weather became mild,
and continued so throughout February, and during that
period we had searcelyany disease. The month of March
was very stormy, the depth of snow preventing the birds
getting at the heather. They then nearly all left the high
ground, and on their return early in April, when some
patches of heather began to appear, the disease set in again
with great virulence, and continued until the moors
were nearly cleared of birds. The consequence is
that on all our higher beats not a young bird has been
seen this season, so far as I know or can learn
from the shepherds. There ar3 a few old barren birds to
be seen on the high ground only. On the lower beats a
few did nest, but they were affected by the disease. Some
hens were found dead close to the nest, and a few were
found dead on the eggs. In general the birds found dead
were in good condition and in fine plumage. I cut open
many birds. In some I found tapeworm to a greater or
lesser extent. The greatest number of tapeworms I found
in one bird was 23, and the worms being from 14 to 20
inches in length, and all side by side in one part of the
intestines, filled the gut to such an extent that I thought
it impossible that anything could pass down. This bird I
got before it was quite dead. It was a hen bird, and not
at all lean. There were about a dozen eggs in her, well
formed, the largest of them about the size of a small pea.
Her plumage was beautiful. Other birds I have opened in
which I found no tapeworm, but in every bird I opened I
found the liver diseased. At the commencement of the
disease the birds found dead were principally cocks; sub-
saquently they were nearly all hens. Taking it from first
to last, I believe we lost about an equal number of both
sexes. In the disease of former years the birds worn in-
variably found dead along water courses, but this year we
found them over all the ground, and in most cases as if
they had died without a struggle, the birds being in a
roosting position, and always with empty crops. lam far
from thinking that tapeworm is the sole cause of the
disease, although it is very likely that the worm, when in
large numbers, may accelerate death in otherwise weakly
birds. Tapeworm is very common in August, even in the
very best birds killed. I cannot assign a cause for the
disease in grouse, nor do I think that any one has yet dis-
covered the real cause of it; one thing certain is, that it
always succeeds a year when grouse aro very plentiful, as
they were last season. I have been head keeper here for
the last 18 years. I have in that time seen as severe
winters as the last was, and I have seen the heather
in as bad condition, and no disease, but I never saw
so many birds o❑ the ground as we had last year ; but
disease attacked the birds the following spring, and this is
the fourth time I have seen these moors cleared of birds
from disease. The following are the years in which it

proved most fatal : —1843; 1835, 1861, and 1867, and I have
no doubt but that we shall have it again in 1873 or 1874."
We might quote from numerous other letters, but they
lead to no conclusion except the general one we had our-
selves arrived at a few months ago—viz., that whatever
the disease may be, and however caused, it is extensively
spread, and has been very fatal. All our correspondents
agree on one point, and that is, that the disease began last
year, but was neglected, or at least not thought to be of so
much importance as to demand immediate attention, which
is to be regretted. If the birds were weakened by slight
disease in the spring of 1866, and then subjected to a hard
autumn's shooting, it was not likely they would be in good
condition to endure the severe winter and spring which
ushered in the present year. It was about the latter end
of February and beginning of March, as one of our cor-
respondents observes, that " the birds began to die literally
in hundreds, the moors being sprinkled with them." Some
correspondents of the sporting prints have contended that
the sole cause of death is tapeworm, but many of the
gentlemen who have communicated with us think it is due
to liver complaint, and from the descriptions of the dead
birds given by some of them we cannot help arriving at
the conclusion that they must have imbibed poison from
their food. Our Glenlivat correspondent says :—" The
livers of all the birds I opened were very diseased, and
crumbled away on being touched ; the lungs of a great
number of the grouse were also affected, and their bowels
in many cases were dreadfully inflamed." Another writer
tells us that "the cause of death appears to be partly tape-
worm, but in eight cases out of ten the liver seems to be
much diseased, and becomes rotten immediately after
death. The birds generally show very little appearance
of disease before death, which, I believe, takes place sud-
denly, or in a short time, as they have been seen to drop
while upon the wing and expire in a moment, as if shot."
The symptoms pointed out by our correspondents seem
to denote poison as the cause of death, and the fact of the
majority of the dead birds having been found near the
watercourses tends to strengthen this impression. if the
birds are poisoned, then, what is the nature of the poison ?
"It is atmospheric," says one of the learned controver-
sialists. "It is lead poison," says another. "They are
not poisoned ; they burst themselves with the young
heather," says a third. "No, they don't," exclaims a
fourth, "it is the sheep that are the cause of the mor-
tality." "You are all wrong together," says a fifth dis-
putant ; " the cause of the grouse disease is that the moors
are overstocked with grouse !" Each disputant, too, can
prove his case at least to his own satisfaction. Fortified
with his array of facts the advocate of lead poisoning will
not be put down ; it is of no importance to him that the
same facts are made to serve to support a totally different
theory. In grouse disease, as in everything else, many
men have many minds; and every man, as is natural,
asserts his own idea as the only true one. But in the end
we believe our opinion will prevail, and we feel certain
that the particular kind of poison that has caused the
pre-
sent calamity will yet be discovered. Another point will
also come to be better studied than it has hitherto been,
And that is how far the destruction caused by the shooters
affects the general health of the birds. It stanhdosttoorvesar-
son, we think, that if a moor is industriously s
there will be many wounded birds left, and the grouse that
and dogs.
escape will be nearly frightened to death by
If so, it is only reasonable to believe thatheru
will yield bad progeny, and so weaken t feeuhnt bad
be rt oe broodh
stock of the moors. The lead poisonliontgterthweohryiehwa“sms.o„
thoroughly demolished in the clever
contributed to the Courant on the 3dpeorfso.fousnewhlaostwtrhiatot
it need not be again referred to.
on the grouse malady would. requireor stlol btehomostdsetest.,
or at any rate n dogmatic, f
be met by statements
meuts in support of one theory
almost equally b advanced as a cause
strong in support another and a totally
"to one If the bad weather e
opposite •
of the mortality, t use disease,
not bring any gro hen we can all remember several very
severe winters which did
while during mild weather thne„
prevail. As to the ``starvation diseaseth e then r , has
w e h alle a knowkeew that
to
birds have been found deahowatihther their crAopgssifou,llsos
were apparently the finest ftowhthaet
enerally in good
"tapeworm" theory, we are told on high authority that
p rm and yet be g h
birds may
health,
iftohoodo.ghWhat t
hcionnkclwu solokno,
otwe
son ,
?” The present season
can we arrive at, but that, a
much, we e really nothing know
brief one. ich have been t
will be a very of those Few o
whf the moors have
mosbeen
spared, and on some
sportsmen are one
moors, bracein our‘vh for-
affectedoerpeinio
merly they obtained n
ee
n tl yy
!g ettfe
Theseg
ought to have been closed,lsportsmen
ahraeve gratified
s se atseo see
from
d
the young birds, as alsodt.hat on vast stretches of moor not
a shot has yet been fire

for a legal

A pooi man in Preston has come in ..ly
of a very gratifying character.
years he has been a pauper on the sick list, and about a
year ago, when his wife died, he broke up his house and
was sent to the Preston workhouse, where he was main-
tained up to a recent period, when he received an inti-
mation that a "fortune" had been left him. The sum is
• ,
£6,000, which has been left to him,fit;
a female relative in

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