ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. 29 
and feeding vessels, before placing any other bird in the 
same pen, as the disease is communicable by the discharge 
from the eye, which may have remained on the wood work, 
metal pans, or wire, the virus seeming to live for a considerable 
length of time. 
Diseases of the Respiratory Organs are not, so far as I 
know, usual among waterfowl, but on three occasions I have 
met with a singular disease originating in the windpipe. My 
attention was first attracted to the condition of the bird by 
the way in which it screwed its head round and _ breathed 
with difficulty. Upon pressure of the crop and neck I was 
led to form the opinion that the bird had swallowed a stone 
which could not pass into the crop, or that there was impaction 
in that organ of some undigested substance. All means for 
relief of the bird’s evident suffering proving fruitless, an attempt 
was made by an experienced poultryman to open the crop 
in the hope of removing the offending substance. It was 
found impossible, however, to proceed with the operation 
the object seeming to recede as the incision was made, and 
I, therefore, sent the bird to Mr. Jamrach for his inspection. 
I cannot do better than give the result of his observation 
in his own words. 
‘* A large globular accrescence had formed on the windpipe,” 
Here followed a rough sketch representing an oval about 
the size of a small walnut— 
‘‘ Either caused by an injury, or else this is a disease to which 
waterfowl are subject, owing to the want of flying exercise. The respi- 
ratory organs of waterfowl, are never brought into violent action in 
captivity, and I am sure disease may be brought on from torpidity, 
as in a wild state waterfowl travel five hundred miles in twenty-four 
hours. The excrescence was broken into three pieces, causing an incision 
in the windpipe itself; the bird now breathes through the slit in the 
side of the neck, the stitching having come undone.” 
A week later the report stated— 
“« Except for a wheezing noise the bird seems well; as a curiosily it 
