Treatment of Slipped IVi.xgs. 



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>veakness ; but as we shall treat this in its place among diseases, we do not further discuss it here ; 

 the more so as the bone-dust we have already recommended will greatly obviate any trouble in 

 this way. There is however another misfortune to which many varieties are liable during the 

 acquisition of the adult plumage, which will be better dealt with in this place. Asiatic breeds are 

 the most frequent sufferers, though others are also liable to what frequently disappoints a fancier's 

 hopes from his finest birds. We allude to what poultry-men call "slipped" or "turned" wings: 

 the primary feathers, or those which ought to be nicely tucked away out of sight when the wing is 

 closed, protruding in more or less disorder outside the others. That this tendency is to some extent 

 hereditary there can be no doubt ; and it mars the beauty of a bird completely, amounting almost 

 to disqualification in a good competition. Pullets are far less liable to it than cockerels, and 

 therefore when it occurs in the female sex it is proportionately far more serious in character. In 

 the most aggravated form, the flight-feathers appear actually tivistcd round the quills, so that the 

 proper inside of the feather becomes outside ; and in this form the affection is both strongly 

 hereditary and we believe incurable. But when it merely amounts to a failing to tuck the flight- 

 feathers in, without any great disorder among those feathers themselves, it may almost always be 



cured if taken in due time. The usual cause we believe to be the buffeting of cockerels by their 

 stronger neighbours, which causes rapid flapping followed by imperfect return ; and after a few 

 times this becomes habitual and the mischief is done : at least it more rarely occurs in a wide run, 

 or in the master-bird of the yard. 



The treatment is very simple. As soon as any displacement of the new feathers is observed^ 

 the wings should be carefully tucked up every night at roost, but nothing further can be done till 

 they are grown enough to hold a ligature, when one or both wings, as required, should be carefully 

 bound up with each feather in proper position. The manner in which this is done, is showa 

 in Fig. 49, the wing being bound round rather tightly as near the shoulder as possible, after which 

 the cord is carried from the knot at A, round the shoulder at B, to the inside part of the ligature at C ; 

 this is of course simply to prevent the ligature from slipping off, which the bird will inevitably use 

 all his endeavours to effect. Soft string about the thickness of stout whip-cord should be employed, 

 and the operation be performed at night for the sake of quietness. A little judgment in tying 

 is necessary, as if the retaining cord be too slack the bird slips the bandage off, while if too tight 

 it will cut and become embedded in the web of the wing, causing irritation and distress. Patience 

 and tact are also required, and we have had birds we were obliged to tie up afresh for five or six 

 nights before the feathers were retained in place to our satisfaction. The greatest care is to bq 

 taken that every feather is in position, on which all depends ; and the bird is then to be left with 

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