CHAPTER VIII. 



THE DISEASES TO WHICH YOUNG PHEASANTS ABE 

 LIABLE, WITH INSTEUCTIONS FOR CURE. 



Diseases desperate grown 



By desperate appliance are relieved, 



Or not at all. 



Hamlet, Act iv., scene 3. 



THE GAPES. 



HIS portion of my subject is approached, 

 I can assure my readers, with considerable 

 diffidence ; in fact, my nights have latterly 

 been rendered hideous by visions of a 

 gigantic bird, a cross between a " cassowary" and a 

 " cock pheasant," while a huge bunch of blood-red 

 worms issuing from the throat of the monster, and 

 threatening to envelope the beholder, have added to 

 the terror of the apparition. But no matter; what 

 can't be cured must be endured, which is very true of 

 the gapes ; and, thanks to the " dog muzzling " and 

 " hydrophobia " controversy, in which I have so lately 

 borne the brunt of the battle, I believe that I am fast 

 arriving at the pachydermatous condition on which 

 the worthy editor of the Field occasionally plumes 

 himself. 



That worms do for us all in the end is a truism ; 



