Page:GrouseinHealthVol1.djvu/23

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INTRODUCTION
xix

Shipley has published the results of his labours in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for 1909 in the following series of articles: (1) The Tapeworms (cestoda) of the Red Grouse; (2) The Threadworms (nematoda) of the Red Grouse; (3) The ectoparasites of the Red Grouse; (4) The Internal Parasites of birds allied to the Grouse. The first three of these papers are, by the courtesy of the Zoological Society of London, reprinted with minor alterations in the present Report. Dr Shipley has also acted as one of the Publishing Sub-Committee of the Inquiry, and has given much assistance in the revisal of the proofs and the preparation of Interim and Final Reports for the press.

R. F. Leiper, D.Sc, M.B., F.Z.S., Helminthologist to the London School of Tropical Medicine, was appointed in 1908 to help in the elucidation of certain difficult questions relating to the life history of the nematode worm Tricliostrongylus pergracilis, which in the opinion of the Committee is the main cause of mortality in adult Grouse. Dr Leiper devoted much time to the study of these questions, and to him is due the credit of having solved many of the problems connected with the development and bionomics of this important parasite. The result of his investigations are given in the present Report.

W. Bygrave and Percy H. Grimshaw assisted Dr Shipley by a prolonged and systematic search for the intermediate host of the Grouse tapeworms, and though the results were negative, the conscientious manner in which the search was conducted has enabled the Committee to claim that the question has been investigated as fully as was possible in the time at their disposal.

H. B. Fantham, D.Sc. Lond, B.A. Cantab., A.R.C.S., F.Z.S., Christ's College, Cambridge, Parasitologist to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, formerly Assistant to the Quick Professor of Biology in the University of Cambridge, was appointed Protozoologist to the Inquiry in 1907, and since that date has made a careful study of the protozoal parasites which are found in the blood and alimentary tract of the Grouse. His researches have resulted in a most interesting series of discoveries, of which by far the most important from the Committee's point of view is that the Eimeria (Coccidium) avium frequently found in the alimentary tract of the Grouse is a frequent cause of death of young birds. Dr Fantham has followed up and fully described the life history of this parasite, whose presence in the intestine of the young Grouse was first pointed out by Dr. Leiper, and has published the results of his researches in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for October 1910 in the following series of articles: (1) The