80 PIGEONS AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



auotlier, for I know by experience that It runs in some 

 strains, and is inherited in the egij. 



I look on canker in pigeons as I do on scrofula in children, 

 the innocent ones are the sufferers. Canker may be dormant 

 in the system of many a bird, and it takes only rich and 

 injudicious feeding, impure water, lack of exercise, and such 

 causes, to develop it. It usually shows in the mouth, and 

 sometimes in the ear. In old birds, when I had it in my 

 loft, I paid little attention to it. (I will say frankly that I 

 consider a breeding bird, with canker in its system absolute- 

 ly valueless.) It is no good for a breeder. Watch conditicns 

 ever so carefully, and the disease will show in the young, 

 and I do not consider a cankered young bird worth saving. 



A fancier may dislike to kill a finely bred young bird that 

 shows canker ; Ijut if he will take my advice he will kill it at 

 once, and try and forget about it as soon as possible. 



If a faucier wishes to cure canker — for the time being, — 

 let him take a common wood tooth-pick and pry out the 

 cheesy matter. Be very careful and not draw blood: if he 

 does, let him soak it up with cotton, for it is poison, pure 

 and simple. 



Then use any ordinary cathartic, and give the bird actions 

 of the bowels. Then build up the bird with any tonic stimu- 

 lant. 



A good lotion is made up of glycerine and carbolic acid, 

 ten drops of the first to one of the last. Often, by following 

 the above directions, a bird may be gotten into shape, but I 

 arn willing to stake my reputation as a fancier, that the 

 disease will again show, either in the bird itself or its young. 



Again let me go on record as stating that a bird with canker 

 in its system is not worth a penny, and time spent on it is 

 wasted. 



