32 



MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS. 



Phosphate of Iron given also daih- in water. This 

 is a splendid tonic for a weali or ailing bird. 



For Wounds. — Sometimes a bird will get its 

 head nearly scalped, its foreliead knocked, or its 

 shoulder butts scraped raw, with flying against the 

 wire. 



Wash the wound clean and dry it gently, then 

 smear on a little vaseline. or "New Skin." The 

 latter is an antiseptic, and dries in a few moments 

 after being applied, forming a coating over the 

 wound. Care must be taljen to cleanse the place 

 first or you only seal the germs in. It smarts very 

 much at first, but has a soothing feeling later. 

 The bird should be held till the application has 

 dried. 



Roup. — This is a most dangerous and infectious 

 disease. I have found Bleeding Heart pigeons 

 especially Hable to it, and have also had one case 

 of a delicate young Bronzewing that caught the 

 infection and died. A bird suiTering from roup 

 may, for the first few days, look as if little ailed it, 

 but a close observation will show the beak slightly 

 open, and on examination 3'ou will find one or more 

 small whitish growths under the skin inside the 

 mouth and throat. If these are not removed and 

 the afBicted parts dressed they quickly increase in 

 size and fill up the throat till the bird dies of 

 suffocation. 



I once had an outbreak of roup amongst my 

 birds (though they were in an heated aviary), and 

 at the time it started I knew of no sure remedy. 

 I thought that to try and remove the growths only 

 was but to torture the sufferer ; further, .1 did not 

 care much for handling a bird with roup. I have 

 read that blood-poisoning may in this way be con- 

 veyed to human beings if there is any scratch on 

 the hands. I did nothing for a fine cock Bleeding 

 Heart, and hoped against hope he would, recover. 

 He seemed fairly well for over a week, but had 

 increasing difficulty in swallowing food, and one 

 morning was found dead. The next bird attacked 

 was a hen, and later two other hens. I felt I could 

 not bear to see my little flock of nine Bleeding 

 Hearts die off one by one, so put my feelings on 

 one side and searched for a remedy. I found in 

 one of my "bird" newspaper-cutting books a letter 

 taken from The Feathered World advising Jeyes' 

 Branalcane, so I got a bottle and found it a 

 splendid dressing, and all three birds recovered. 



I removed the growths first. The pared and 

 blunted cedar end of a camel's-hair brush makes 

 a very good instrument, a clean piece of rag 

 should be placed handy, and a pot of water to drop 

 the growths into as they are removed (as they 

 must be burnt to prevent the infection spreading); 

 a few drops of Branalcane should be poured out 

 into a second pot to paint out the mouth when 



Dwarf Turtle Dove. 



it has been cleared. It 



is any easy operation to 



do by yourself if you 



get all your things ready 



fi7-st. The bird is held 



firmly in the left hand, 



the beak slightly prised 



open with the wooden 



end of the brush, and 



then kept in this 



position by pressing the 



tip of the beak against 



the first finger of the 



left hand. If the growth is far back tilt the bird's 



head rather backwards. The thumb should be 



round the neck, the second finger acts as a perch 



for the bird's feet. Don't try to do too much at 



once — give a few moments' rest now and then. 



When finished, dress with Branalcane with the 



brush, washing it out well afterwards. 



I gave the affected birds a few drops of phos- 

 phate of iron daily in their water as a tonic, and 

 of course kept them from the healthy stock, not 

 in another aviary, but apart in cages. 



Starvation. — This seems a strange thing for 

 well-fed birds to suffer from, yet it is not un- 

 common where a number of birds are kept in one 

 aviary. Perhaps through the winter they agree 

 well, then with the oncoming of spring one cock 

 will turn a tyrant, and unknown to you may keep 

 a shyer bird from the food till it loses flesh and 

 becomes very weak. You will easil}' discover the 

 mischief by noticing if any bird seems hiding 

 away. Probably on your driving it out the 

 aggressor will advance, and the sufferer quickly 

 retire again, telling its own tale of fear. The 

 remedy is obvious — remove the bird to other 

 quarters, or, better still, keep it for a time by itself 

 and give a tonic in its water; and to prevent a 

 recurrence spend a few minutes each day very 

 quietly watching your birds, standing quite still, 

 and not just "looking round" the aviar)' and going 

 out again. You will find you may learn very much 

 even from one day's observation, and the birds, 

 losing their fear of you, will be seen under natural 

 conditions. 



Egg-bindfing and Constipation. — Warm olive oil 

 is the simplest remedy, for either of these /distress- 

 ing complaints. Fortunately, doves very seldom 

 suffer from either. For egg-binding, blow up the 

 feathers gently and let a drop or two of oil soak 

 into the inflamed part, letting it drop gently off 

 your paint brush. Also paint the surrounding 

 parts, but be careful not to soil the feathers with 

 oil. Take a little of the warm oil in the toothpick 

 (having first rounded its end) and, carefully open- 

 ing the bird's beak a little with the toothpick, let 

 the oil run down the throat. Keep the bird in the 



