PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



of numerous minute cells, and has a rich blood supply, so 

 that it is an important matter for this organ to be kept in 

 proper working order ; otherwise derangement of other parts 

 is bound to occur. The term "rupture of the liver" is 

 applied when one of the blood-vessels, no matter how small, 

 supplying this organ is ruptured, an injury which, as a rule, 

 speedily proves fatal. 



J nflavintation of the Bowels i^Enteriiis), 

 also Coccidiosis 



Infectious enteritis has already been referred to, but 

 inflammation of the bowels may and does occur in 

 Pheasants quite apart from specific causes, and when it 

 does so, it usually results from some form of irritant, 

 such as unsuitable food, the ingestion of poisonous plants, 

 mineral irritants, the presence of worms, coccidia, etc. etc. 

 Either the large, small, or whole length of the intestine may 

 be implicated in the diseased process, whilst the degree of 

 inflammatory action varies in accordance with the potency 

 of the irritant and the condition of the digestive tract at 

 the time of the ingestion of the irritant. For instance, in 

 some cases the mucous lining of the bowel only is affected, 

 whereas in other instances there is intense redness through- 

 out the whole thickness of the wall of the gut. Young birds 

 are particularly liable to intestinal irritation, and the slightest 

 aggravation may lead to inflammatory action, which, in every 

 instance, so far as the author is aware, proves fatal. There 

 is no method of distinguishing infectious from non-infectious 

 enteric, excepting the evidence afforded by the numerous 

 deaths, together with the rapidity of the same, arising 

 through the disease first-named, along with the post-mortem 



270 



