CH. VII] DISEASE IN PARTRIDGES. 231 
it will be found swarming with maggots, rather 
smaller than those bred in flesh. The keeper, 
from whom I learnt this dodge, a man of consi- 
derable experience in his vocation, tells me that he 
considers them, as food for young birds, superior 
to flesh maggots, inasmuch as they may be given 
in any quantity without fear of causing surfeit. 
Out of forty-two young Partridges attempted 
to be reared by a friend of mine in 1853 only one 
survived, the whole of the others having been 
carried ‘off by a disease somewhat peculiar, and, 
I believe, uncommon, manifesting itself by a 
gathering close to the eye, about the size of a pea, 
containing matter, which caused the head to swell 
up to double the natural size. The following year 
many were carried off by a similar disease, the 
only difference being that the gathering then took 
place inside the upper mandible. Many remedies 
were tried, but none proved successful. Running 
in the same meadow with these partridges, and 
treated exactly in the same way, were a number 
of young pheasants. Singularly enough, however, 
the disease was exclusively confined to the par- 
tridges. Not one of the pheasants was attacked 
by it, and they remained throughout perfectly 
healthy. 
