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may not have been contracted at the large continental bird-mar- 

 ket but at the wholesale or retail dealers' establishments which 

 are mostly reeking with infective microbes, even if they are not 

 kept in a most insanitary, filthy condition — in a condition the 

 sanitary authorities would not allow a pig or a cow to be kept. 

 As bird-keeping is not absolutely essential to our well-being, 

 moral or material, I think it is only a moral duty that we, who have 

 a predilection for this kind of pleasure, should see that the poor 

 creatures are treated as well as possibly could be, and not allowed 

 to suffer from over-crowding, want of food and clean water, 

 disease and filth, just for the gain of those who trade in them. 

 What right have we to encourage wholesale misery to, and 

 slaughter of, the majority of birds caught for our pleasure? I, 

 whose profession daily brings me into contact with suffering, 

 and who, therefore, it might be supposed, would have a callous 

 heart, have truly been sorry for the poor creatures cooped up 

 like bees in a hive; in fact I cannot express my true feeling. 



But let me return to the subject of infection. Birds when 

 just purchased may apparently be in good health, and remain so 

 for a few days to a week or a month or so, when they gradually 

 droop and die one after another, until most, if not all, have died. 

 The reason the bird appears well at first and afterwards dies is 

 because the infection takes time to declare itself in the form of 

 disease. There is a quiescent period, or period of incubation, 

 from the time of the inception of the infection to the onset of 

 illness. 



The purchaser of birds is not alone in this misfortune ; 

 thosewhobuyayounghor.se, dog or cat from a dealer's estab- 

 lishment, which is reeking with infection, frequently have the 

 animal at home a few days or a week or so before it falls ill and 

 very often dies. No doubt young horses from the country, pup- 

 pies or kittens from the breeder, are perfectly healthy until they 

 enter the dealer's establishment where they are not long before a 

 customer comes along and buys one, which then seems in the 

 best of health and spirits. But it has not been in its new owner's 

 possession long before it becomes a patient for the veterinary 

 surgeou. I have encountered hundreds of such cases and profited 

 from them. No doubt many of your readers have had such au 



