6o 



It is quite possible that, in the light of further research, 

 the "bird-fever or plague" of Clarke, Creswell, and others, may 

 be proved to be due to an invisible micro-organism ; and that the 

 microbe mentioned by these authorities may only play a secondary 

 role, as the formerly so-called microbe of swine-fever does in 

 swine. This micro-organism, although causing, when pigs were 

 fed with it, all the classical symptoms of swine-fever did not give 

 them immunity on exposure to natural infection, nor when they 

 were injected with the filtered blood of pigs suffering from the 

 natural disease. The filtered blood, however, gave the natural 

 disease to pigs which, when they recovered, were immune to the 

 natural disease. At one time the best pathologists in nearly 

 every country distinguished several infectious diseases of swine by 

 the pathological lesions and by the visible microscopic micro- 

 organisms. Now, thanks to the researches of the late Dr. 

 Schweinitz and his colleagues in the Bureau of Animal Industry 

 in the U.S.A., the filtrate test has convinced not only the British 

 but also all the leading pathologists of Continental Europe, that 

 they were studying several manifestations of one disease. 

 Millions of pounds had been spent over these investigations 

 during the last thirty years, and all the labour and expense 

 has been thrown to the wind by this filtrate test, which no doubt 

 will play in the future a very important part in the elucidation of 

 many of the diseases of animals and man. 



I shall revert to this subject again in a future number of 

 Bird Notes, as I wish, by going into side paths of bird pathology, 

 to make my ideas about the various diseases of birds clearer to 

 your readers. 



£be Breeding of Swamson's Xonfceet. 



( Trichoglossus novce-hollandiee). 

 By Miss C. Rosa Little. 



Two or three years ago I wrote an account of my Blue 

 Mountain Lories for Bird Notes, and I think it may interest many 

 to hear about my later experiences of these most quaint and 

 interesting creatures. 



In my former notes I told of the affection existing between 



