134 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



her body. From this it follows that the means to be adopted 

 in order to exclude the disease from the pheasants at the 

 outset are very simple, viz., carefully select the hens for 

 rearing. They must be thoroughly examined before the 

 hatching of the pheasants commences. The mouth and 

 throat particularly, the skin of the abdomen and chest, must 

 be healthy ; where there is a sign of cutaneous necrotic 

 disease, easily distinguishable as thick dry greyish-yellow 

 friable deposits, the hen must be rejected. I know from 

 inquiry that nothing in the shape of a careful selection- 

 actually occurs. Keepers take the hens wherever they can 

 get them; they borrow them, buy them anywhere, or breed 

 them. Sometimes they have the disease amongst their own' 

 poultry stock; but there is no attention paid to the healthy 

 condition of the hens selected for rearing purposes. Apart 

 from the losses amongst the pheasants by the disease, the 

 fact that this disease is not uncommon amongst fowls, causes ■ 

 in some farms, considerable losses amongst the poultry itself.' 

 There is only one way of getting rid of the disease — that isy 

 stamping out. 



"When once an animal — be it fowl or pheasant — shows- 

 signs of the disease, it ought to be safely removed. When 

 in any field where pheasants are reared the disease has made 

 its appearance amongst the young birds, the hens ought to- 

 be carefully inspected, and the diseased -hens and diseased 

 pheasants removed. Those that are not affected ought to bfr 

 placed on new ground. A field where the disease has been 

 rife should not be used again for a year or two, and care 

 should be taken that some disinfection be undertaken — e.g., 

 quicklime scattered over the field. But I feel sure that, if at 

 the outset no diseased hen is admitted for the rearing, the 

 disease will not make its appearance amongst the pheasants ;' 

 for the hens seem to me to be' the prime cause." • 



We are also indebted to Dr. Klein for the first accurate' 

 description of a very fatal epidemic disease which attacks' 

 fowls in overcrowded poultry-runs, and from them is apt tff 



