24 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



always great and often frightful, far surpassing anything known 

 in any other class of stock. The writer on the pheasant in the 

 Encyclopedia Britanica, last edition, who appears to have had 

 access to excellent sources of information, speaking of hand- 

 reared birds, states that the proportion that come to the gun 

 may amount to three-fourths of those that are hatched (not 

 of eggs set); but that, in many of the western counties, it 

 would seem that more than half of the number that live to 

 grow their feathers disappear inexplicably before the coverts 

 are beaten. All that is here stated is corroborated annually 

 by lamentable accounts of losses among artificially-reared 

 birds, and the following, from the " Field " of July, 1 898, by 

 Mr. Tegetmeir, is a sample: — 



" Mortality among young pheasants. — During the 

 last two weeks I have received from various parts, of the 

 country an unusually large number of dead newly-hatched 

 pheasants for examination and report. The letters of these 

 correspondents are in many cases of a very lamentable 

 character, the birds dying in some localities at the rate of 

 nearly a hundred a day. One correspondent informs me that 

 out of eighteen hundred hatched twelve hundred are already 

 dead, and that the remainder are not expected to survive. 

 It is needless to say that the losses in these cases are serious. 

 Careful examination has shown that the birds are not at all 

 affected by the same disease. I would therefore mention them 

 as far as possible in detail. 



" One correspondent, writing from Suffolk, forwards me 

 a batch of young birds that he is losing at the rate of fifty or 

 sixty a day. He describes the disease as being " cramp," 

 attacking the birds when about a fortnight old, previous to 

 which the chicks appear healthy and well. They then lose the 

 use of their legs, and flutter along on their wings, dragging 

 their feet after them This disease is, unfortunately, too well 

 known under the entirely erroneous name of " the cramps." 

 It was first accurately investigated by Dr. Klein, whose valu- 

 able account was originally published in the " Field." 



" I have also had birds forwarded to me as specimens of 

 newly-hatched chicks that have died in large numbers, becom- 

 ing blind from the swollen condition of the eyelids. These 

 also have swollen patches at the angles of the mouth, when 

 they cannot feed ; and in severe cases the legs also show 

 yellowish-grey patches on the skin. In this disease the bones 

 are unaltered, nor is there any very distinct disease of the 

 internal organs. It is really an inflammation of the skin,. 



