198 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



wet, they should be warmed and dried at once. The usual way 

 to do this is to wrap the bird in a piece of old flannel and 

 place it in an oven at a temperature of about 100 degrees, or 

 near a stove. If this is done promptly, a bird that seemed to 

 be nearly dead from wet and cold may be running about as 

 well as ever in an hour. A large part of the losses of little 

 turkeys is due to lack of attention in matters of this kind, 

 or to delaying it until the injury cannot be fully repaired. 



FIG. 163. Turkey hen with brood. (Photograph from the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture) 



After the young turkeys are five or six weeks old, they do not 

 need such close watching. They are now so well feathered that 

 their plumage sheds rain, and if they are thrifty, a little wetting 

 will not hurt them. It is at this age that the symptoms of the 

 disease called blackhead begin to appear, if it is present, and 

 the turkeys pine away and die one by one. Blackhead is a con- 

 tagious liver disease which affects fowls as well as turkeys, but 

 is most fatal to young turkeys, because it is a filth disease ; 



