340 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 31, 1878. 
shows symptoms of great debibity and even impotence, especially 
in the hinder quarters, which seem to be quite useless and can 
only be dragged about. Sometimes the disease extends towards 
the head. In this case it is more serious, and generally results 
in death. As the appetite is speedily affected great care must be 
taken to tempt the Rabbits by frequent changes of food, and a 
little extra green food as an aperient will sometimes do good. It 
is seldom that a Rabbit with this disease ever thoroughly recovers; 
indeed, we hardly think it advisable to try to cure any but show 
Rabbits, as they should never be allowed to breed after having 
been once thoroughly diseased. The complaint is very apt to 
appear in the next litter, and will be easily brought out by damp 
and badly-smelling hutches. 
Rabbits have sometimes sluggish and diseased livers. The 
complaint is very bad, as it tends to destroy all the benefit derived 
from good food. It is generally classed among preventive diseases. 
This we hardly see. Ifa Rabbit has a good liver constitutionally 
it will take a good deal to affect it very much any way, but if it 
has a weak one, inherited from its parents, a very little careless- 
ness will cause disease. The disease most common in kind seems 
to consist of a quantity of little insects, which stick to the liver. 
If the liver is healthy and strong they will not be very injurious, 
but if the liver is at all weak they soon get a hold upon it. A 
cure is almost impossible, except when the remedies are tried 
very early in the disease. Plenty of light and air are the very 
best remedies that can be prescribed, with plenty of good sub- 
stantial food. If show Rabbits they may be preserved alive for 
some time by these means, but a cureis doubtful. As the complaint 
is lable to be transmitted Rabbits affected with it should never 
be allowed to breed, as if they do their litters are pretty sure to 
be tainted. 
A bad affected blood thoroughly impregnated in the system is: 
another unpleasant disease to which Rabbits are constitutionally 
liable. It is caused in the first instance by starvation of the 
blood, and by giving only food that does not produce strength. 
Hence it is very necessary to keep the Rabbits well attended to, 
as the complaint is exceedingly’ debilitating and destroys the 
Rabbit’s value for breeding. It makes itself apparent in many 
ways. The eye loses its vigour and_becomes pallid and humid in 
appearance. If the Rabbit gets a scratch the place immediately 
festers and discharges profusely, boils rise on the back and sides, 
and the hair consequently comes off. Sometimes these are so 
small as to be more like pimples, and they all discharge a little. 
If squeezed a good deal of blood and matter comes out, and seems 
to afford momentary relief. It is well to wash this off and not 
leave it on the skin, as it might cause fresh eruptions. The less 
food that is given the worse the bloodseems to get. The eruptions 
should not be confounded with small boils, which are more the 
result of overfeeding. A little cooling food, chiefly herbs, will be 
found to prevent this, and quickly to cure it. Gatherings should 
be broken and washed out. Sore hocks are sometimes caused 
by the want of stamp in the blood. In this case the hocks swell 
very much, and if the hutch is rough or dirty the disease is in- 
creased. The remedy that is best is the addition of substantial 
food, with plenty of purgative food at intervals. Meal mashes 
mixed with potatoes are very strengthening, and may be recom- 
mended for this complaint. This disease transmits itself in breed- 
ing, and therefore affected animals should be kept separate till 
thew death. Often the remedies may keep show Rabbits well for 
a short time, but the discharges are very weakening, and it is not 
often that a Rabbit lives very long after being seized with the 
complaint. 
Another affection is that of the kidneys, which affects Rabbits 
that are kept in damp hutches. If there is no outlet for the wet 
to pass away, and it is allowed to accumulate, the effect upon the 
kidneys is very palpable. The urine that is passed is often red. 
The Rabbits when affected show signs of debility and ill health. 
Warmth and judicious diet will be found most likely to produce 
acure; plenty of green food of a milky nature should be given, 
as well as ample supplies of corn and meal. 
As Rabbits closely connected often have the same disease it is 
most important to ayoid in-breeding —GETA. 
ARRIVAL OF NORTHERN BIRDS. 
Most of the northern birds due in the middle of October have 
arrived. All the summer migrants have gone except a few house 
swallows. The London bird-catchers have lately had large takes 
of the brown linnet, common redpoll, greenfinches, yellowhammers, 
siskins, goldfinches, and mountain or tree sparrows. The flights 
of birds arriving from the north are as follows:—Hawfinches, gold- 
finches, chaffinches, siskins, mountain sparrows, twites, brambling 
finches, bullfinches, brown linnets, weodlarks, redwings, black- 
birds, thrushes, and stony redpolls. The stony redpoll has 
skipped these coasts for the last two or three years, but many 
have been taken during the past week. Ring-ousels have been 
very scarce this autumn. The northern larks, fieldfares,and snow 
buntings have not yet been seen, as it is still early in the season 
for them. 
The various kinds of titmice, such as the large-tit or ox-eye, 
blue-tit, cole-tit, and marsh-tit, are very plentiful about the 
suburbs of London. Another class of birds common to this 
country is also plentiful, and may be seen by any ordinary ob- 
server about the borders of woodsides and copses near London. 
These are the nuthatch, little tree-creeper, common wren, the 
golden-crested wren, and long-tailed titmouse. All these birds 
frequent the same localities in the company of each other. They 
are especially fond of parts of the country where firs and yews 
abound. The last five birds do not seem to increase in numbers, 
and are never more plentiful one year than another; for the last 
thirty years there has been no noticeable increase in them. This 
is all the more remarkable, as these birds are very seldom trapped 
in nets, caught with birdlime, or killed by gunners. They are 
useless except as specimens for the cabinet. 
The hooded or Royston crow has been noticed on the marshes 
below Gravesend ‘These birds are generally observed first at 
Flamborough Head, in Yorkshire. At Flamborough Head during 
the last few days many of our autumnal visitors have been noticed 
—namely, scores of blackbirds, thrushes, crested wrens, and owls. 
These owls were probably bred in the rocks in the vicinity of 
Flamborough. Flamborough Head is the great arrival station of 
many autumnal migratory birds proceeding south from Norway, 
Sweden, &c. : 
Woodcocks are also beginning to arrive at Flamborough. These 
birds subsist during the summer months on the larve of the 
mosquitos and other insects that breea in the extensive marshes of 
Norway and Sweden. The moonlight nights and easterly winds 
during the last few days have been especially favourable for the 
arrival of birds from the north. At Flamborough the blue rock 
doves are also very plentiful. These birds are found nearly all 
the world over; they will not breed in captivity. Visitors to 
Rosherville, near London, may have noticed many pairs of these 
birds breeding about the cliffs in the gardens. At the present time 
the blue rocks are feeding on the stubbles, and their fayourite © 
food is the charlock seed. They do much good by eating 
up the seeds of this weed. These blue rocks must not be con- 
founded with the blue rocks used for pigeon-shooting from the 
trap. lLinnets and greenfinches also eat large quantities of char- ~ 
lock seed. This fact accounts for large numbers of these birds 
being seen on the stubble lands. 
During the late foggy evenings numbers of the small common 
mouse-eared bat have been seen about the streets in the north 
part of London. It is difficult to know on what these bats are 
feeding, as there is very little insect food to be had, such as 
moths, &e.—(Daily News.) 
VARIETIES. 
Ir may be interesting to some of our bee-keeping readers to 
learn that a Hertfordshire Bee-keepers’ Association is in process 
of formation. It was at first intended by the promoters to form 
an association for West Herts only, and during the past summer 
several meetings have been held with this object, whilst displays 
of bee-driving, &c., have been given at Harpenden, Rickmans- 
worth, Latimer, and Great Berkhampstead at the shows of their 
horticultural and cottage garden societies. Prizes have also been 
offered to cottagers and others for the best supers of honey in 
wood, glass, or straw. By the advice, however, of the Bishop of 
the diocese the scope of the Association has been enlarged, and 
its operations will be extended to the whole of Hertfordshire 
instead of being confined to its western division only. The Harl of 
Verulam, the Lord Lieutenant of the county, has consented to bem 
President of the Association; and the Bishop of St. Albans, the 
Earl of Clarendon, Earl Brownlow, Lord Ebury, and Lord Ches- 
ham have promised to be Vice-Presidents. Other names will — 
shortly be added to the list, and a new vigorous Association will 
take its place amongst the Lincolnshire, Devon and Exeter, — 
Dorsetshire, and other county associations already in existence. 
Tux official list of awards made to British exhibitors at the - 
Paris Exhibition, including those for all kinds of live sgock, has 
appeared very clearly and elaborately got up. H.R.H. the Pre= 
sident of the British Commission has sent a copy of it to every 
juror not present to receive it at the distribution of prizes. AU 
note is appended to the list of jurors to the effect that their — 
services were entirely gratuitous. 
—— At the Tunbridge Wells Poultry Show a Carrier Pigeon 
belonging to Mr. Stephens was claimed for £100. We believe the | 
purchaser was Mr. Hedley. We think that at least one bird of 
the same variety was last year sold for the same price. & 
A MEETING was held on the 23rd inst. at the County and 
Borough Halls, Guildford, to inaugurate the newly-formed Surrey 
Columbarian Society. The President of the Society, Mr. 0. E. 
Cresswell, took the chair ; the Vice-president, the Rev. G. S. Davies 
of Charterhouse, the Hon. Secs. Messrs. Walker and Allen, and 
many local fanciers, were present. The Society will hold its first 
show at Guildford in December. 
— We have before us a large number of schedules of shows” 
to be held in the month of November. Among them, on 
November 6th and 7th, the Cambridge Show of Poultry, Pigeans, | 
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