140 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



kills the worms and grubs ttat are near the surface of the 

 paths, and these are eaten by the pheasants with fatal effect. 



With regard to injurious substances taken as food, it is 

 unquestionable that pheasants are sometimes destroyed by 

 eating yew ; but it is singular that the precise conditions 

 under which they are poisoned have not been ascertained. 

 The poisoning of animals from eating these leaves is so 

 well known that damages have been claimed and obtained? 

 after an appeal to the higher courts, by persons who have 

 lost. cattle, horses, or sheep, in consequence of the branches 

 of yew trees being allowed to hang over fences, or the cutting 

 of hedges being thrown upon the ground. In conjunction 

 with the late Professor Tuson, of the Veterinary College,. I 

 investigated the poisoning of pheasants by yew leaves several 

 years ago. The action of the poisonous leaves in pi'oducing 

 inflammation of the intestines was so well marked that there 

 could be no possible doubt of the cause of death ; but the 

 circumstances that lead well-fed pheasants to eat yew leaves 

 on some occasions, and not to touch them on others, are 

 difficult of explanation. The poisoned birds that I have 

 examined have always been highly nourished, extremely fat, 

 and in good condition, and, so far from being hungry, their 

 crops in many instances have been filled with maize. 



I have recently received one of several pheasants that 

 had been picked up dead in the coverts of Mr. Ryde, of 

 Chiddingfold. This pheasant was in the most splendid con- 

 dition ; the crop contained about a dozen leaves of yew and 

 a few grains of small maize. There were also com^minuted 

 leaves in the gizzard, and distinct evidence of their existence 

 in the intestines, and there could be no doubt of the cause 

 of death. 



Some few years ago Lieut. F. Stuart Wortley, then 

 working at the Agricultural College, Downton, wrote a letter 

 to the Times in which he described a number of experiments 

 performed with a view of ascertaining the amount of the 

 poisonous principle known as taxine in the leaves of the 



