DISINFECTION AND CLEANSING OF AVIARY 



On some estates the Pheasant-rearer has to be content 

 with the same ground year after year, consequently the land 

 is very liable to become fouled, and disease fostered. When 

 a keeper is placed in this unfortunate position he must make 

 the best of that which is at his disposal, although the 

 uninitiated in the art of game-rearing may not be capable 

 of appreciating the tremendous disadvantages under which 

 he labours, attributing, in all probability, any measure of bad 

 luck either to his want of knowledge or to lack of perspicacity. 



Under these conditions the game-rearer must above all 

 things avoid overcrowding the ground — in other words, he 

 must have his coops widely distributed, taking advantage of 

 the intervening spaces not occupied by the coops in the 

 preceding year. 



The presence of insect life, grit, and young grass are 

 conducive towards success in Pheasant-rearing, and the 

 existence of all three quite compatible with the time-worn 

 rearing-field, though of course secondary to conditions 

 obtainable where fresh ground could be had each season. 



Nest-boxes must be treated, so far as disinfection, etc., 

 is concerned, in a manner similar to that applied to the 

 coops, as these appliances are equally liable to become media 

 for the transference of disease, first to the sitting hen, and 

 from her to the brood. The presence of lice on broody hens 

 is well known to every gamekeeper and to every game- 

 rearer, and these vermin are readily transferred to the brood, 

 and subsequently to other broods. It is impossible for 

 Pheasants to thrive when affected in this manner, and it is 

 a very much commoner cause of birds dying, through the 

 irritation induced, than some people are apt to suppose. 



Lice are transmitted from bird to bird both by direct 

 and indirect means. All broody hens should be critically 

 examined to see that they are free from lice, which ought 



249 



