61 DISEASES. 



such tumours sometimes appear on the crown of the head 

 and between the beak and eyes of pouters and other 

 birds. They appear as small pea-shaped, movable lumps, 

 and should be cut out before they attain large size. The 

 skin may be slit with a sharp knife, when the tumour is 

 easily pressed out, unless attached to the bone, which it 

 sometimes is, when it must be cut away; but it is then 

 likely to grow again. 



Gizzard Fallen. 



This was the old term for what is really a displacement 

 of the bowels. Pouter hens are very subject to it after 

 three or four years of age, and carriers and barbs also. 

 There is no cure for it, though birds so affected will live a 

 few months. I have never known a cock pouter with this 

 disease, but have seen young ones affected with it in the 

 nest, when it has always proved fatal in my experience. 



Gorging. 



This is an ailment of pouters, and more especially 

 of such as have well- developed crops, the best birds in this 

 respect having to be carefully watched. The old cure was to 

 pass the bird through the leg of a stocking, and hang it up 

 till the food passed off; but the same result may be attained 

 by placing the bird in a narrow box, padded at one end to 

 support the crop, so as to allow the food to pass into the 

 stomach. Large cropped pouters, when allowed to feed their 

 young, are very apt to gorge, some doing so invariably. 

 When gorged from drinking too much water, this may be 

 pressed out of them by gently squeezing the crop till they 

 disgorge it, when they will be right again in a short time. 

 When, however, the crop is so gorged as to contain nearly 

 as much as the weight of the whole bird, it is a bad sign, 

 and it will then be found that neither the stocking nor box 



