PHEASANTS: IN PEACE 117 
feathers (a process which keepers always are glad 
to see completed), and finally suffering severely 
when gapes broke out in covert. 
By blindness I mean that the eyelids, first of 
one eye and soon afterwards of both, are stuck 
together by’ a gummy substance, when, unless 
something is done, the afflicted chicks soon starve. 
A certain cure is just to tinge a morsel of hard- 
boiled white of egg with blue vitriol (sulphate of 
copper), and put it down the sufferer’s throat. 
You must not be too liberal with the vitriol, or 
you will save the chick all further liability to 
ailments of any sort. By way of external treat- 
ment, the eyelids may be anointed with oil of 
almonds, and separated so that the bird can see 
to feed; which external treatment should be con- 
tinued, if necessary, till the internal dose has taken 
effect. I knew one keeper who swore by his own 
saliva as a fomentation for the eyelids of blind 
pheasants. But individual treatment is tedious— 
not that the keeper begrudges any amount of 
trouble, if thereby he can rear a pheasant to 
maturity. Unfortunately, as I have often proved, 
birds, though completely cured of blindness, are 
very liable to die off later, especially from gapes. 
Chopped onions are particularly beneficial to birds 
suffering from gapes, and it is a good plan also 
to dress their food, immediately before giving, 
with a mixture in the proportion of sixpenny-worth 
