CORNISH CHOUGHS. 105 



restlessness indicated excessive pain and probable inflammation. 

 An examination therefore was deemed desirable, and accordingly 

 made ; half of the leg being laid bare by removing with a sharp 

 knife, bit by bit, every thing down to and including the feathers : 

 an operation not without its comical side, for the servant holding 

 the bird was suddenly taken faint when it was about half done, 

 and a fresh domestic had to be summoned, and then it was 

 discovered that the greater part of the flesh was brown and 

 flacid, and the rest tense and swollen ; in fact mortification 

 seemed imminent. 



No time was accordingly lost in applying a bandage of linen 

 wetted with dilute nitric acid (one dram to the pint), replaced as 

 often as it became loose, and moistened with the lotion. Two 

 days of this treatment rendered matters considerably more hope- 

 ful ; the leg resumed its normal temperature ; the gangrenous 

 part became more circumscribed, and a healthy patch of flesh 

 appeared below the wound ; the other half of the splint, which 

 stuck "like pitch," meanwhile being sufficient to prevent any 

 sudden jerk from separating the ends of the broken bone. 



On the 18th, a bandage of arnica was put on, and some of 

 the tincture sprinkled over the food. On the 20th it was con- 

 jectured that if the bone intended to join at all, it had probably 

 already done so ; and since the sooner all pressure was removed, 

 the sooner all inflammation would cease, it was decided to take 

 off the other half of the splint. This proved a work of no small 

 difficulty, but when at last it was safely accomplished, the pleasing 

 fact was established that the bone had united. Gradually life 

 seemed to struggle into the limb, and a powerful relief it was to 

 the patient when, by the 24th, he could rest his right foot, even 

 with toes doubled up, on the perch, and so take some of the body- 

 weight off the long-ago exhausted left leg. 



From this time, progress was both rapid and satisfactory ; 

 full use presently came back to the joints of the foot ; the bird 

 was permitted once more to fly, and shew that in spite of much 

 handling, his wing feathers were all sound ; within a month 

 from the date of the accident his recovery was complete ; and 

 though the right leg is now a trifle shorter than the left one, he 

 no longer favours it in any way, has quite forgotten all about 

 his inj ury, and — as he well deserves to be, for his docility and 

 patience under suffering— is as hale and hearty as ever. 



