PARASITIC AFFECTIONS 



unacquainted with this trouble such might be mistaken for a 

 disease known as Roup, but the differential diagnosis becomes 

 comparatively easy when one comes to consider the absence 

 of a catarrhal discharge from the nasal openings, etc., so 

 diagnostic of the trouble last named. A very characteristic 

 sign is the constant opening of the beak, the young bird 

 evidently feeling as though it were going to be suffocated, 

 which, in some cases, does actually occur. Megnin has esti- 

 mated that two or three couples is sufficient to kill a Pheasant 

 at a month or six weeks old, whereas it will require twenty 

 or thirty to produce suffocation in an adult bird. In addi- 

 tion to the difficulty experienced in breathing, the bird is 

 dull, has its feathers erect, mopes about, and takes little 

 or no food. Some very extraordinary epizootics have been 

 brought about through the invasion of pheasantries by 

 these worms, and those who rear a large head of game 

 are only too well aware of this fact. 



The red or forked worm invades any part of the wind- 

 pipe, but seems to be particularly fond of taking up its 

 abode just where the air tube divides into the right and 

 left bronchi, in which situation the parasites are sometimes 

 found enveloped in a frothy mucous. They are attached 

 to the windpipe by the mouth, and the point of attachment 

 sometimes forms into a small tumour filled with matter. 

 Although a very minute abscess, the latter acts as a 

 mechanical impediment to the breathing, and may be 

 sufficient to produce suffocation. When young Pheasants 

 are dying it is always expedient to dissect out the whole 

 course of the trachea, and hold it up to the light, when 

 the worm, if present, will be seen shining through the 

 cartilage of the tube. 



The Treatment. — As previously stated, the early detection 

 of the trouble constitutes one of the most valuable methods 



R 257 



