142 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



the disease affecting- these pheasants was contracted from 

 the fowls on the poultry farm on the estate^ where they were 

 dying in large quantities. The writer asks for a remedy. 

 The researches of Dr. Klein, and the experience of those avIio 

 have endeavoured to rear large numbers of pheasants or 

 poultry on tainted ground, point to but one remedy, the 

 destruction of the affected birds ; and as it would be im- 

 possible to destroy the bacilli in the tainted ground, over :i, 

 large extent of covert, the rearing of pheasants should only 

 take place on fresh and untainted ground the following year. 



It is important to note that this fowl enteritis infects other 

 gallinaceous birds, and that, as in the present case, pheasants 

 on overcrowded grounds and those reared in the neighbour- 

 hood of crowded poultry runs are liable to be attacked Avith 

 the disease. 



The moral to be drawn from these valuable researches of 

 Dr. Klein is obvious. These infectious diseases are spread by 

 the endeavour to rear pheasants and fowls on overcrowded 

 and consequently tainted ground. 



The remedy is the destruction by cremation of all the 

 infected stock, the removal of those that are not diseased, and 

 above all, the rearing of the poults on fresh pure ground. 



Pheasants hatched under farmyard hens are not uu- 

 frequently liable to what are known as scurfy legs. I'lie 

 description of this objectionable disorder I may quote from 

 my volume on " Table Poultry '' : 



" Scurfy legs depend on the presence of minute parisites 

 {8arcoptes mutans), which live under the scales of the legs 

 and upper part of the toes, where they set up an irritation, 

 causing the formation of a white, powdery matter, that raises 

 the scales and forms rough crusts, which sometimes become 

 very large. When these crusts are broken off and examined 

 with a microscope, or even a good hand lens, they will be 

 found to be filled with the female parasites, generally distended 

 with eggs. The crust itself may be compared to the crumb 

 of dry Ijread ; but the parasites are to be found only in those 



