CHAPTEE IX. 



The Diseases of Pheasants. 



By H. Hammond Smith. 



PHEASANTS in a state of Nature are particularly hardj'. 

 Being bred, as they generally are, from strong healthy 

 parents, the few weakly chickens that are produced 

 die under that benevolent arrangement which has been so 

 justly termed the survival of the fittest in the struggle for 

 life. Consequently the most vigorous remain as brood 

 stock, and propagate a healthy offspring. Nevertheless, 

 in some seasons, particularly during those that are wet, 

 the young birds are affected by certain epidemic diseases 

 that are difiicult either to prevent or cure ; amongst the 

 first of these may be mentioned cold or catarrh, which 

 is generally caused bj^ an midue amount of wet weather 

 acting on birds enfeebled by too close inter-breeding, or by 

 ■errors in the dietary and general management, such as undue 

 exposure to cold winds. All that can be recommended in 

 case of the young birds being thus afflicted is warm, dry shelter, 

 and the addition of a little stimulating food, as bread soaked 

 in ale, and spiced with any ordinary condiment, such as cayenne 

 or common pepper, and the moistening of the oatmeal, or other 

 soft food, with a solution of a quarter of an ounce of sulphate 

 of iron in a quart of water, using enough to give the meal an 

 inky taste. But the wild birds may also suffer from diseases 

 contracted from the birds reared by hand or from adjacent 

 poultry farms, such as gapes, coccidiosis, or enteritis, etc., and 

 while it is possible to treat these diseases when they occur on 

 the rearing field, it is exceedingly difficult to combat them when 

 they make their appearance among the young birds in the 

 coverts. 



