THE GAME BREEDER 



123 



cise for the young birds which, of course, 

 they do not get when fed on maggots. 

 The insects are a natural food and are, 

 we believe, all the animal food required. 

 We shall be glad to have some letters 

 from game keepers on this subject. 



Blackhead in Turkeys. 



Mrs. F. L. S., Ind., writes: "Please 

 tell me what to do for my turkeys that 

 are dying with some form of bowel 

 trouble. The droppings are of a green- 

 ish yellow. The edge of the mouth turns 

 red while the head turns black and they 

 rattle in the throat. My old gobbler died 

 of this trouble and in about four weeks 

 I lost my large turkey hen that had 

 hatched the turkeys. They have full 

 range." 



The trouble is known as black-head, 

 or in other words severe indigestion, 

 caused by eating too freely on fat-pro- 

 ducing foods. If you will take the dis- 

 ease while it is in its first stages you can 

 cure it, but if you allow the turkeys to 

 linger with the disease three or four days 

 nothing will cure them. Give one tea- 

 spoonful flours of sulphur, in about one 

 hour give three teaspoonfuls of pow- 

 dered charcoal. Have your tinner to 

 make you a long necked funnel about 

 the size of a lead pencil and of sufficient 

 length to pass below the wind pipe. One 

 about the length of an ordinary lead 

 pencil will be about right. Dissolve one 

 tablespoonful Epsom salts in two ounces 

 of soft water and give three hours after 

 you have given the charcoal. This will 

 clean out the bowels and open the way 

 for the liver to have free action. Con- 

 tinue to give three teaspoonfuls of char- 

 coal three times daily until the fowl is 

 noticed to appear more active, then feed 

 a light feed of wheat bread and provide 

 water. If the fowl again appears slug- 

 gish repeat the treatment. You can save 

 nine out of ten with this method of 

 treatment. — See Bulletin 141, Rhode 

 Island State College Agr. Exp. Sta. 



A Deer Trouble. 



Referring to the article in The Game 

 Breeder for November — my deer have 

 been afflicted with what seems to be 



black tongue. The tongue and lips seem 

 paralyzed and they are unable to eat. 

 I give medicine by cutting an apple and 

 placing it in the cut. I then place the 

 apple well back in the mouth. The deer 

 are very fond of apples and when sick 

 seem to enjoy eating them. Most of 

 my deer died when attacked with this 

 trouble. 



Kansas. H. D. CoLtiNS. 



Lead Poisoned Mallards. 



Mr. W. L. Finley, writing for the 

 Oregon Sportsman, says : 



"Two or three years ago my attention 

 was called to some sick Mallards that 

 were found on Government Island in the 

 Columbia River. Two males were found 

 swimming about on the lake, but they 

 could not fly. Two dead birds were also 

 picked up and examined. In the stom- 

 ach of one of the dead Mallards we 

 found forty-two shot. Some of these 

 were the size of No. 6 shot ; others were 

 as small as dust shot, showing that they 

 had been worn down by the action of 

 the stomach. For many years there has 

 been a great deal of duck shooting along 

 the Columbia. There is naturally a great 

 deal of shot scattered about. In feeding ' 

 along the mud bottoms of the ponds, 

 ducks eat these shot, mistaking them 

 for seeds or gravel. Mr. J. H. Boyles, 

 of Tacoma, records the same thing on 

 the flats surrounding the mouth of the 

 Nisqually River where it empties into 

 Puget Sound near Olympia. He exam- 

 ined the stomachs of two Mallards and 

 found one contained nineteen shot and 

 the other twenty-seven. It seemed to 

 be purely a case of lead poisoning. The 

 Mallard seems to be the only species 

 that is affected." 



We believe there are other records of 

 birds being killed by eating shot. Prob- 

 ably some of our readers can contribute 

 something aout this. On a well-regulat- 

 ed duck preserve or "shoot" the birds 

 are not shot on or near the pond where 

 they are fed, and there is no clanger of 



their being poisoned. 



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