THE PHA8IANUS 8UPEHBUS. 87 



of tobacco stands foremost as the readiest, being so easily applied 

 in the form of fumigation, and, if properly applied, is said to be 

 an infallible remedy. In order to administer it with success, you 

 must be careful that the chicks be not suffocated. The operation 

 has been performed with the utmost success, by covering the 

 diseased chicks in a box: to a person in the habit of smoking 

 tobacco, there is no difficulty in lighting a pipe, and by intro- 

 ducing the bowl through an aperture, the smoke may be blown 

 in till it appears sufficiently dense, which must be examined 

 every two or three minutes. When any of the chickens become 

 stupified, by the fumes of the tobacco, the operation of blowing 

 the pipe should cease, when there will be no danger of suffocation ; 

 but if they appear exhausted, they should be taken out, and will 

 speedily recover. As dense a smoke as the chickens can exist 

 in, is best, and the criterion is stupefaction, and the loss of their 

 legs ; as soon as that appears, no more smoke should be intro- 

 duced. You are to recollect, that inhaling a large quantity of 

 smoke, in a short time, is more effectual than a small quantity 

 inhaled for several hours. 



I have tried a moderate solution of tobacco in water, with 

 success. It seems to have precisely the same effect on the chicks 

 as fumigation ; and, although it does not pass down the trachea or 

 windpipe, still the exhalation communicates with the vermes, and 

 seemes to have all the advantages of fumigation, without the risk 

 of suffocation ; and it is said, that so powerful is the effect of 

 tobacco, that no culinary preparation can render the flesh of the 

 fowl palatable, that dies under this operation. 



Jalap has been successfully given as a purgative to fowl that 

 have been moping, and dispirited five grains to a young chicken; 

 ten grains to a half-grown fowl ; and fifteen grains to an adult. 



The above remedies are applicable to the entire poultry tribe, 



THE WHOLE PHEASANT TRIBE 



Are so beautiful, it would be difficult to say which is most so. 

 One noticed by M. Diard is of the size of the Common Pheasant, 

 gorgeously adorned with green and gold ; in shape, it much re- 

 sembles the common bird, but of more splendid plumage. 



The Phasianus superbus, of Latham, is, perhaps, the most 

 splendid of the tribe ; it is very rare in China, where it is kept in 

 the menageries of the most wealthy. It has an extraordinary 

 long tail. Temtninck gives the length of the longest feathers as 



