DISEASES AND THEIR CURE. 97 



but, unfortunately for the young pheasant poult, he is 

 too apt to make their acquaintance at the commence- 

 ment of his existence, and more pheasants succumb 

 in the course of the year to the gapes than ever they 

 do to the shot-gun. 



Poor bird, who now that darksome bourne 

 Has passed, whence none can e'er return. 



Was remarked long ago by Catullus (" The Grave," 

 iii., 2), and probably, if he was alluding to a pheasant, 

 he was thinking of the " gapes ;" in fact, as advice, to 

 be valuable, should be brief so following the noble 

 example of Mr Punch, who summed up all there was to 

 be said about matrimony, in his time-honoured piece 

 of pithy recommendation I can only, when asked for 

 a sovereign remedy for this disease, answer, " Move." 



There you are ; there's the whole gist of the 

 argument, and if I write for a fortnight I cannot 

 improve upon this monosyllabic remedy. If your 

 birds get the gapes on one field, off with the whole 

 batch to another. It is the only way to treat the 

 disease wholesale, and is pretty sure to be effectual. 



If you have only a few birds affected, and can afford 

 the time, treat them coop by coop by the carbolic acid 

 cure ; but, as you can only proceed by a few at a time, 

 if you are lumbered up with a lot of gaping birds, the 

 far-off lots will be dead before you can find time to 

 attend to them. A simple and possibly efficacious 

 method of administering carbolic would appear to be 

 to mix the powder with sawdust, and cover over the 



H 



