142 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



No special apparatus is required, as any arrangement 

 which will serve to volatilise a few drops of the acid will 

 answer ; the vapour of carbolic acid may be used by putting 

 a hot brick into the box, and pouring a few drops of the 

 acid upon it, or it may be volatilised by putting three or 

 four drops in a spoon, holding the latter over the flame 

 of a lamp, and placing the head of the bird in the cloud 

 of rising vapour. I have had a good deal of experience 

 with birds afflicted with te gapes," but have never found 

 any treatment equal to that of fumigation with carbolic acid 

 vapour. 



The treatment most usually adopted at the present time 

 is the insufflation of one of the various gape powders now on 

 the market. The basis of most of these powders is lime and 

 carbolic acid, but many keepers make their own. The 

 powder is blown into the coops every morning before the 

 young birds are let out. In the present state of our know- 

 ledge this is certainly the best method of dealing with large 

 numbers of pheasants. The effect is to make the birds choke 

 up the worms, but unfortunately it does not kill the embryos 

 which are in the female worm, and other pheasants may 

 swallow them, and the disease is thus carried on from one 

 bird to another. 



The most effectual check upon the disease is the total 

 destruction of the parasites. If the dead bodies of the birds 

 be thrown away, instead of being burnt, the mature eggs in 

 the gapeworms will not have sustained any injury. Decom- 

 position having set in, the young embryos will sooner or later 

 escape, migrate into the soil or elsewhere, and ultimately find 

 their way into the air-passages of birds in the same manner as 

 their parents did before them. 



Any ground on which pheasants that have suffered from 

 gapes have been reared should, after the rearing season, be 

 heavily limed, and the lime should be allowed to remain on the 

 surface for three or four days. When feasible the land should 

 then be dug or ploughed, and at least one crop taken off it 



