September 7, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



223 



vhc, J. F. Loversidffe. Dragoons.— 1, R. White. 2, J. Baker. 8, R. Woods. 

 Tumblers.— Special 1, 2, 8, and vhc, J. Baker. Antwerps.— 1 and 3, R. White. 



2, F. R. Edwardson. Barbs.— 1 and 2, J. Baker. 8, H. Crosby. Any other 

 Variety.— Special 1, W.Harvey. 2,J.Baker. vhc, H. CroBby. Selling Class. 

 —Pairs or Single —1, W. Harvey. 2, F. R Edwardson, W. & H. Adams. 3, C. 

 Wroot. vhc, J. Blanchard, R. White (2), W. & H. Adams. 



RABBITS.— Lop-eared— 1, E. Pepper. 2, T. & E. J. Fell. Extra 2, T, 

 Myton, W. H. & A. Horner. 3, J. Noble, jnn. vhc, J. Fallding, T. & E. J. Fell. 

 Silver-Grey.— 1, T. & E. J. Fell. 2 and vhc, H. H. Duck. 3, T. Myton. 

 Himalayan.— 1 and 2, T. & H. Dnck. 8, J. W. Atkinson. Selling Class.— 1 

 and vhc, T. Myton. 2, E. Pepper, T. & E. J. Fell. Extra 3. E. Robinson. Any 

 other Variety.— 1, E. Pepper. 2, E. Robinson. Extra 2, T. & E. J. Fell. 3 

 and vhc, T. Myton. Extra 8, T. & H. Duck. 



CAGE BIRDS— Parrot.— Grey African— \, R. Smith. 2, C. Glover. Any 

 other variety.— 1 and 8, J. Coker. 2, Sir T. A. Constable. Parhoqdet or Lory. 

 —1, R. Durden. 2, G. Coker. 8, J. Coker. Love Birds.— 1 and 8, J. Coker. 2, 

 W. G. lurdon. Any other Variety op Foreign Bird.— 1, Special, and Extra 



3. J. Coker. 2, C. A. Glover. 3, J. C. Griffin. Canaries.— Belgian— 1, W. 

 Forth. 2, — Ostler. 3, C J. Salt. Nonvich.— 1, C. J. Salt. 2, G. C-Btler. Extra 

 2, W. Forth. Marked, any breed— 1, G. Ostler. 2, C. J. Salt. Larks.— 1, J. 

 Barnes. 2, T. Kirk, jnn. British Birds.— 1, R. Toogood. 2, J. Barnes. 8, G. 

 Coker. 



Judges. — Poultry and Babbits: Mr. E. Hutton. Pigeons: 

 Messrs. Hawley and Hutton. Cage Birds : Mr. L. Mennikie. 



DISEASES OF PIGEONS. 



The symptoms of the Pigeon which I lost, as I believe from 

 inflammation of the lungs, were rather different from those de- 

 scribed by Mr. Hutchinson as being indicative of bronchitis. 

 The bird never lost its inclination to eat, but seemed unable to 

 pick up the peas. The only other symptoms were extreme diffi- 

 culty in breathing, and for some hours before death a most 

 distinct clicking in the lungs could be heard even at a distance 

 of some yards. The bird was removed from the house and 

 brandy and water administered. On the third day, when too 

 late, I applied a mustard plaister between the shoulders, which 

 gave it some relief, but it was not Boon enough to save it. 

 "When opened the lungs proved to have been very much in- 

 flamed, with a great deal of froth about them, and some clotted 

 blood was found near the heart. 



I have been much troubled with canker this year, and lost a 

 great many young Pigeons from that disease ; I Bhould therefore 

 feel grateful for suggestions. Some birds have been very much 

 more unfortunate than others, having loBt all their yonng, while 

 others again have not lost one from that cause. Does not this 

 look as if there was some natural tendency to this disease in 

 the young birds inherited from their parents 1 This question 

 of the disease being hereditary is most important, as, if it does 

 not exist, there can be no reason for destroying good birds simply 

 because they have been unfortunate with their families. I may 

 mention that my birds are well housed, kept clean, and fed on 

 white peas and dari in the morning. — E. B. T. 



I find the forms of disease are so numerous and puzzling that, 

 in the words of Lord Dundreary, they are things that " no fellow 

 can understand ;" but nevertheless, I still venture to assert that 

 Pigeons are often amenable to treatment, and that I have in my 

 lofts healthy breeding birds that would have undoubtedly died 

 if left to themselves. I can give many instances, but will take 

 two of the most remarkable. I bought a prize Pouter cock two 

 years ago. When he arrived here he was scouring badly. I took 

 every care of him ; gave him Walton's paste, sulphate of iron in 

 his water, powdered ohalk, opium pills, and crammed him with 

 beans without any effect ; he got worse and worse, and became so 

 weak and thin as to be unable to stand, and did not eat a grain 

 himself for several days. I happened to have seen a letter in your 

 journal asserting that scouring was caused by worms. I took an 

 eggspoonful of powdered areca nut, mixed it with powdered 

 chalk and Walton's paste, water, and two grains of opium, and 

 put it down his throat. The next morniDg he had passed a 

 round worm 2 inches long, similar to those that horses are some- 

 times infested with ; he began to feed the same evening, became 

 perfectly well in four or five days, has bred for two seasons, won 

 twice, and I have three birds by him here at this moment. The 

 Bame year I bought an imported Black Bussian Trumpeter. A 

 short time after I received him I observed him amiss— picked 

 him up, and found he had a large tumour on the lower part of 

 his crop, externally as large as a five-shilling piece, of a yellowish 

 colour, with an internal hard core firmly attached to the top of 

 the breastbone, and as large as a hazel nut. It looked so bad a 

 case that, although I had given a large price, I was on the point 

 of killing him, but resolved on trying iodine. I first plucked off 

 the feathers, and painted heavily with tincture of iodine. In three 

 or four days the tumour was considerably reduced, and after 

 three applications at intervals of a week disappeared entirely. 

 He is now alive, has bred well, and won two first prizes since. 

 Now, as to disease being hereditary, none of this bird's young 

 have had a stiff wing or tumour of any kind. 



With respect to the oanker in the young birds, I have never 

 had many caBes of it, but curiously enough have had two this 

 year, one in a pair of young Trumpeters, under feeders; and 

 another in a pair of Pouters, also under feeders. In the case of 

 the Trumpeters they were apparently at night both doing well ; 

 the next morning I found one of the two dead, his crop full, and 

 ms mouth fall of blood. On opening him I found a large tumour 



loosely attached to the inside of the throat, which had, I think, 

 choked and caused him to break a blood-vessel in the head. Had 

 I perceived it I believe it might have been pushed down the 

 throat ; if the place had then been dressed with caustic I think 

 the bird would have lived and done well. The other young one 

 was reared, fed himself, and did well till he died a day or two 

 since in moulting. The case of the young Pouters was some- 

 what Bimilar ; apparently well overnight, in the morning the 

 head of one of them was dreadfully swelled, and the bird dying. 

 I killed him, and found a tumour behind his eye. This case 

 was evidently incurable, as the cancer was not confined to one 

 place, but involved the whole head and neck. The other young 

 one did well, is a particularly large handsome bird, and is now 

 nearly through his moult. In both these cases none of the 

 earlier and later young birds from the same parents have shown 

 any signs of canker, and are all quite healthy. I think that 

 canker comes from the feeders, and not from the parentB. 



_A " Puzzled Fancier " should change a pair eggs from the 

 birds that breed cankered young to a pair that breed healthy 

 birds. If they still turned out cankered it would go a long way 

 to prove that his view is right ; but even if this did happen I 

 think it quite possible that they might not breed a single 

 cankered bird next season. 



I have a large number of birds, some chiefly feeders, and 

 young birds fly at liberty. The others are confined in lofts and 

 aviaries in three or four places at a distance from each other. 

 Last season I lost fully three-fourths of the young birds hatched 

 from the second and third round of eggs by a disease I had 

 never seen before, and have not had a single case of this year. 

 They all died at about ten days old of disease of the liver, which 

 grew to an enormous size and was full of yellow pustules. The 

 old birds were apparently quite healthy, and none of them died 

 of it, and the disease attacked all the varieties indifferently, the 

 feeder's own young birds dying just as freely as the more delicate 

 birds. I think " Puzzled Fancier " must admit that it was 

 not a case of hereditary taint. Since I wrote to you last I have 

 had another very bad case of bronchitis in a two-year-old and 

 very valuable bird. I have treated him in the way I stated in 

 my last letter, and he appears to be in a fair way to recover. 

 — J. H. Hutchinson. 



CANARY MANAGEMENT IN OLDEN TIMES. 



No. 3. 



In the Journal of July 27th, page 84, 1 promised to state in a 

 future chapter Mr. Hervieux's method of making a composition 

 for young Canary birds, which, as the writer observes, " may 

 serve a fortnight at least without being spoiled." 



" Take half a pint of rapeseed and bruise it very well in a 

 large mortar, or on a smooth table, running a wooden roller 

 over it several times, so that the seed beiDg well broken you 

 may cleanse it from the hu6ks ; add to it three little dry sim- 

 nels bruised and reduced to powder after having taken off the 

 first crusty part; add to it a penny biscuit. All this being well 

 mixed together and reduced to powder, put it into a new wains- 

 cot [deal] box, and set it in a place that is not exposed to the 

 sun. Take a spoonful or more of this powder as you have oc- 

 casion, and your birds' food will be made in a moment, adding 

 to it a little of the yolk of an egg, and a drop of water to moisten 

 the whole. But you muBt not give your Canary birds this 

 powder above twenty days at most, for after the said term the 

 powdered rapeseed which is in the composition, though dry, 

 grows sour, and when water iB put to haB a taste like mustard, 

 which cannot but be hurtful to your young birds." 



Mr. Hervieux's advice is not to make too large a quantity of 

 the composition at one time, for being kept in a deal box is 

 (owing to the soft nature of the wood), apt to breed worms. He 

 further says, " After twenty days at most, if yon have any of 

 this composition left you may give it in the dry prepared state 

 to the old cocks and hens, which will eat it heartily without 

 receiving any hurt by it." 



A recipe for a similar composition to the above, the only al- 

 teration being the omisBion of the dry bruised rapeseed, is 

 given for young birds in their earliest stage of youth — from the 

 chipping of them until they are four days old. The writer 

 appears to have much favoured the system of bringing-up young 

 birds by hand, or of providing the means by which it might be 

 effected. He Bays, with a drop or so of water moisten the com- 

 position, and " tempering all well that there may be no hard 

 lumps. This paste must never be too thin, because if so it does 

 not nourish them so well, and they are continually craving; 

 besides that when it is too wet they, the birds, are of ten_ loose 

 and scarce recover it. When the paste is somewhat stiff it lies 

 longer in their craws, and- nourishes them better. When the 

 hard egg is new the white dissolves as well as the yolk, and 

 does not heat them so much as if there were only the yolk. 

 When the first three days are past, and I perceive my young 

 birds gather strength, I add to the composition a small quantity 

 of rapeseed boiled without bruising, they being then able to 

 digest that seed, but the said rapeseed must be washed in cold 



