58 



unsound feed, lack of a good supply of grit, or from natural 

 lack of vitality. This disease never attacks healthy and 

 vigorous birds, but takes for its victims those which have 

 become weak from any reason. If it is not taken in hand 

 at once, the bird wastes away and becomes nothing but 

 "skin and bones" and dies. The first symptoms are usually 

 diarrhoea, the droppings being thin and watery. The birds 

 does not eat, but sits around with its head drawn down 

 and really starves to death because it has no appetite to eat. 

 If a bird which has started to go light is taken in hand 

 at once, it is very often possible to save it for future useful- 

 ness. Give it a dose of castor oil, giving about five or six 

 drops. Put it in a coop by itself and the next day give ten 

 drops of cod liver oil. Repeat the dose of cod liver oil every 

 day until the bird is cured. Give it hempseed every day 

 and be very certain the seed is sound and free from musti- 

 ness. 



CANKER. 



Canker is a disease of the same nature as diphtheria in 

 human beings. It appears occasiona.lly in lofts where it 

 never before has been found, and seems to be contracted 

 from germs which float in the air. It often attacks the 

 birds in one nest and not in the one next to it, although 

 if it is not taken in hand it will soon spread to all the birds 

 in the loft. 



It no doubt comes from a cold very often and birds which 

 show symptoms of having caught cold should be carefully 

 watched. The first appearance of the disease shows little 

 yellowish white blisters on the lining membrane (mucous 

 membrane) of the mouth and throat. These rapidly in- 



