93 



Pheasants. 



pigeons, sparrows, starlings, and linnets to wit. A 

 curious fact in connection with the life-history of this 

 worm is that male and female are usually found in cop. 

 inside birds affected with gapes. Indeed, it is this 

 remarkable characteristic that has given rise to the 

 popular name of Forked-worm; while that of Red- 

 worm is due to the colour of the parasite. The 

 female is very much larger than the male. When the 

 former is mature, and full of eggs, she with her partner 

 are expectorated by the affected birds. Eventually, after 

 lying upon the ground, or maybe already in the bird's 

 throat, the eggs are distributed, hatching out into 

 embryo worms, which will develop into either sex of the 

 mature worm. Inasmuch, too, as numbers of both 

 embryos and eggs are taken by earth-worms, these, when 

 swallowed by birds, act as intermediaries. Extremes of 

 wet and cold are apparently avoided by the eggs or 

 embryos remaining in the alimentary canals of the earth- 

 worms during the autumn and winter. Wet weather is 

 favourable to their development in the respect that earth- 

 worms containing the eggs or embryos are frequently 

 forced from the soil during its continuance, and thus 

 spread the seeds of the disease. 



From what has been stated, it will be obvious that 

 directly gapes shows itself in a pheasant chick the proper 

 course to pursue is to eliminate the brood it belongs to 

 from the rearing-field, to lime the ground heavily where 

 the coop stood and in its vicinty, and to transfer all 

 adjacent broods to a distance. The one or two or more chicks 

 should also be separated from the remainder. 



There are many cures for gapes; but I doubt if any 

 prove more effective than those in the form of fine dust 

 which are blown into the coops or boxes provided for the 

 purpose by means of special bellows (Fig. 15). The dust 



