CH. VII.] DISEASE IN PAETEIDGES. 231 



it will be found swarming with maggots, rather 

 smaller than those bred in flesh. The keeper, 

 from whom I learnt this dodge, a man of consi- 

 derable experience in his vocation, tells me that he 

 considers them, as food for young birds, superior 

 to flesh maggots, inasmuch as they may be given 

 in any quantity without fear of causing surfeit* 



Out of forty-two young Partridges attempted 

 to be reared by a friend of mine in 1853 only one 

 survived, the whole of the others having been 

 carried off by a disease somewhat peculiar, and, 

 I believe, uncommon, manifesting itself by a 

 gathering close to the eye, about the size of a pea, 

 containing matter, which caused the head to swell 

 up to double the natural size. The following year 

 many were carried off by a similar disease, the 

 only difference being that the gathering then took 

 place inside the upper mandible. Many remedies 

 were tried, but none proved successful. Running 

 in the same meadow with these partridges, and 

 treated exactly in the same way, were a number 

 of young pheasants. Singularly enough, however, 

 the disease was exclusively confined to the par- 

 tridges. Not one of the pheasants was attacked 

 by it, and they remained throughout perfectly 

 healthy. 



