Gapes.



195



GAPES,


By Arthur F. Moody.


I would like, for the benefit of the readers of the ‘ Avicultural

Magazine,’ to record that here (E. Yorks), and as far as my ex¬

perience is concerned, this malady has of late years become very

prevalent and a serious menace to the rearing, or, in fact, the

keeping, with the usual degree of pleasure, of some of the more

delicate gallinaceous birds in captivity.


By this I do not of course infer that an attack is invariably

fatal. On the contrary, if taken in time, it is usually, in the more

robust species at least, curable; but from the fact of its rather

frequent or annual occurrence and the consequent loss of condition,

involved by repeated handling, dressing, etc., not to mention

damage to plumage and the natural ill-effects of the parasites, a

bird becomes worn, anaemic, and in no condition to develop, moult

breed, or meet the winter. This reappearance I attribute in some

measure to certain species being naturally subject to the disease

and possibly carrying with them, or never really throwing off, the

worms, but largely to the fact of living in what I may term to be a

gape-infected area, where young poultry and game-birds almost

annually suffer severely, and where numerous wild and affected

Books, Jackdaws, and even Blackbirds and Thrushes, are at certain

seasons of the year repeatedly visiting the enclosures.


However, be the cause and effect what they may, it is notice¬

able that young stock is more susceptible to the disease than mature

examples, also that some species, notably the Grouse family 1 " and

the true Pheasants, appear very much more liable to be affected

than others; also that, although the disease is most prevalent in the

summer, it is by no means unknown during the colder months.


As examples of this, I may state that we have received at

least one batch of Nut-Crackers badly affected in mid-winter, and I

have seen a whole brood of domestic Chickens suffering severely in

January, while Jackdaws have been caught here in early spring—of


* Apparently the Red Grouse is very rarely subject to the gape-worm in the

wild state. The report of the Committee on Grouse Disease (p. 213) says

that only two examples were noted while the inquiry was in progress.



