Worms. 151 



and in severe cases that part of the intestine contains nothing 

 but blood-stained mucus ; the hver also, especially in older 

 birds, may be the seat of bacterial infection, causing patches of 

 necrosis. The symptoms are those of enteritis, namely, loss 

 of appetite, emaciation, diarrhcea, etc., but death does not 

 occur so rapidly as in enteritis caused by coccidia. The diseases 

 caused by all these parasites are infectious, as the eggs of the 

 worms are passed with the droppings and may be picked up 

 by healthy birds with their food. The treatment for these 

 round worms is mainly preventive, moving the birds on to 

 fresh ground and paying great attention to the purity of the 

 water supply. As a medicine powdered santonin has been 

 found most efiScacious, the dose being from half a grain to one 

 grain for each bird given with the soft food once a day. 



Gapes. 



Another nematode worm, which is found, not in the intes- 

 tinal tract, but in the respiratory tract of the pheasant is the 

 gape worm, Syngamus trachealis, which often causes great 

 mortahty in the rearing field. This worm was first recorded 

 in 1799 by Dr. Wissenthal, who observed it at Baltimore, 

 U.S.A. In England it was first recorded by Montagu in 1806, 

 as occurring in an epizootic form in pullets, pheasants and 

 .partridges into which the parasite had probably been imported 

 from America. (Neumann.) Further investigations have 

 shown that it is by no means confined to galHnaceous birds, 

 but is also found in crows, magpies, jackdaws and many other 

 birds, especially starlings {Field, Dec. 9, 1911). 



This parasite is found in the trachea of the birds infested 

 with it, and is known to many keepers as the " forked worm," 

 the male and female being found firmly adherent to one another, 

 the male forming the smaller branch of the fork. The worms 

 are red in colour, the males being from 3mm. to 6mm. in 

 length, while the females measure from 5mm. to 20mm., and 

 in the female the ovary can often be easily distinguished, 

 and irregularly dilated, when full of eggs. The worms are found 



