ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. 27 
a preparation of Opium, has usually marked effects for good. 
It may be administered every two hours in doses of one 
to four drops in a little water, having due regard to the age 
and size of the patient. In cases where the cause of the attack 
is not known, the presence of some irritant substance may be 
suspected, and a dose of castor oil is advisable an hour before 
the administration of opium. Hard boiled eggs and boiled 
rice are suitable food. Opium as well as all other medicines 
should be carefully measured in a minim glass, or fatal 
accidents may ensue. 
It must, however, be used with great caution, Battley’s 
Sedative containing one grain of opium in twenty-two drops, 
which would be an ordinary dose for a grown up person. 
It is necessary for the fancier to recollect that opium is 
highly poisonous, and not only to use it with caution, but to 
ascertain from a chemist the strength of the preparation before 
administration. 
Sores are not uncommon among ducks, and often proceed 
from a blow received in fighting or from scratches when striving 
to escape and thrusting the head through wire netting. The 
patient is best isolated and should be allowed plenty of water, 
which will assist in healing the wound, which, if inclined to 
gather, should be bathed with warm water and dressed with 
Friar’s Balsam, and later with zinc ointment. 
Specks on the eye or films are usually amenable to the 
same treatment as would be followed in the case of the human 
subject, and it is always worth while, where valuable specimens 
are concerned, to ask the opinion of a competent medical man 
upon the nature of the disease. As these affections of the eye 
proceed from various causes, it is in the case of so delicate 
an organ as that of sight, most imprudent to treat with 
any powerful drug, such as opium, cocaine, or caustic, without 
