138 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



epidemic, it may prevent its further infection; but it is 

 possible that the microbe may exist in the ground, from 

 which it finds an entrance into the system of the birds. This 

 view is very possibly the case, as experienced keepers know 

 that "cramps" occur when the coops are kept on damp soil, 

 and that when removed to higher dry ground the disease dies 

 out. 



In a subsequent communication to the Field in the 

 following year, Dr. Klein says : " I still attribute the cramp 

 disease to a bacilliary infection of the system of the bird 

 leading to corrosion and fracture of the bones." 



Other epidemic infectious diseases affect young pheasants, 

 carrying them off at times in large numbers. The most 

 important of these is one, the origin of which is generally 

 unsuspected amongst pheasant rearers, it arising from the 

 farmyard hens which are used as hatchers and foster-mothers. 



Dr. Klein gave a very careful account of this disease in 

 the columns of the Field. He wrote as follows : 



" I had the opportunity of investigating the disease in one 

 of the eastern counties, where on one estate several hundreds 

 of young pheasants became affected and died. The symptoms 

 are these : The young birds, generally less than six weeks 

 old, show either at one or both the angles of the mouth, on 

 one or both eyelids, on the feet, sometimes also on the 

 abdomen, some patches of various sizes and outlines, at first 

 red and slightly elevated or swollen, then becoming yellowish- 

 grey and dry and necrotic. When the eyelids are involved 

 (which is the case in a large percentage) the birds appear 

 blind, owing to the lids being more or less closed ; where the 

 feet are also affected (which in a large pei-centage is the case) 

 the birds are weak and slow in walking, they limp also. 

 When the mouth is affected they cannot feed, and therefore 

 waste and soon die ; the same result occurs when the eyelids 

 become closed by the disease. In the large majority of fatal 

 cases the affection involves one or both eyelids and the 

 mouth; but in these cases also one or both legs show the 



