Diseases of' Northern Birds. 101 



wings are broken in a storm, of which I have seen an example 

 in the Procellaria glacialis ; and when they are sometimes fa- 

 mished with hunger. It is characteristic of the Palmipedes, 

 that those species which spend their whole lives at sea, and 

 scarcely ever leave the water, without exception seek the land 

 when they are sick, where they end their lives on the same me- 

 dium in which they commenced them, although, during the 

 whole interval, they shunned it as much as possible. It is ac- 

 cordingly the best proof of the Uria, Colymbus, eider-duck, &c. 

 being sick, when they are seen to approach the shore, and re- 

 peatedly endeavouring to gain it, although they should be driven 

 back. 



A disease which affects most water birds, is an enormous accumu- 

 lation of intestinal worms. This, however, seems to give them as 

 little annoyance as it does the seal, especially the Phoca barbata^ 

 the whole of whose stomach is often studded with ascarida?. I 

 have found in the stomach of the Mormon fiatercula, a small 

 ball of grey convoluted ascaridae, without the individual being 

 at all emaciated; and rarely do we open a Uria, Cephus, or 

 Alca, without finding in the intestines either taenia? or ascaridae. 

 In an excursion to some of the Danish Islands, in the summer 

 of 1824 and 1825, I found the intestine of the Podiceps sub- 

 cristatus filled with taenige, the largest of which was twelve inches 

 long, and yet the bird was fat and healthy. Several of the nor- 

 thern birds appear to suffer from external parasitic animals, es- 

 pecially from lice, which, at the breeding season, swarm in the 

 bird-cliffs and their nests. Each bird has a species of vermin 

 peculiar to itself. None are so much molested by them as the 

 Uria troile and Mormon Jratercula, in which the animal is broad, 

 ilat and blue, nearly the size of the sheep's louse, and sucks with 

 great vigour. The lice of the Sula and Carbo are long, slen- 

 der, and proportionally small, much smaller than the human 

 louse. In other species, as the Larus and Corvtis, they are still 

 smaller, and resemble mites. 



Birds manifest indisposition by sleepiness, hanging feathers, 

 loss of appetite, emaciation, and by putting their heads constant. 

 \y under their wings ; and they end their existence with a few 

 convulsive struggles and movements of their wings. There are 

 no other phenomena accompanying their Death. Of some nor- 



