BED-WINGED PABBAEEET. 75 



both the latter species have spoken distinctly to our knowledge: the 

 former used to say "Pretty Dick, pretty Dick, pretty little Dickee; 

 kiss, kiss, kiss, pretty little Dickee": and the latter used to bow, spread 

 out his tail, and repeat "Hip, hip, hurrah!" with the most remarkable 

 correctness of intonation; he would also say, Peter (Pee-ter), his own 

 name, quite distinctly, and we have no doubt would have learned many 

 more words, had he not succumbed, prematurely, to an attack of that 

 terribly fatal and insiduous disease, bird-fever, or bird-typhus as some 

 writers and dealers name the frightfully infectious malady that now and 

 then sweeps off the whole of the inmates of an aviary, with cruel and 

 implacable swiftness. 



When this fell disease makes its appearance in a bird colony, the 

 only chance of safety for any of its members consists in removing the 

 yet healthy individuals to quite new, and, if possible, remote quarters, 

 separately, where this can be done, and ruthlessly destroying the old 

 cages, in which the infection will linger for many months, and possibly 

 for years: and that the destruction, total and complete, of the old 

 tainted residences is the only certain way of preventing a recurrence 

 of the disaster, is borne out by facts in our possession, where aviarists 

 who had "thoroughly disinfected", with carbolic -acid, sulphur, boiling 

 water, and exposure to the air for many days, and even weeks, the 

 cages in which an outbreak of "fever" had taken place, found that 

 new birds, previously healthy, when placed in them, often after a long 

 interval, contracted the malady, and died in a few days. 



For this terrible complaint there seems to be no remedy, its symptoms 

 are listnessness, loss of appetite, ruffling up of the feathers, great thirst, 

 sometimes slight, rarely severe, diarrhaea, loss of strength, and death 

 in two or three days, sometimes in about as many hours. As we have 

 said, there is no cure, it must be at once stamped out, and it is far 

 better to immediately destroy the affected individuals by means of a 

 merciful drop of prussic acid, and remove the survivors to more healthy 

 quarters, maintaining the strictest quarantine until all chance of danger 

 is past. 



As the complaint has a decided period of incubation, extending over 

 a period of three or four days, it is always best when buying a new 

 bird, to isolate it from its future companions for at least that space 

 of time, when, if it still continues to appear "all right", it may be 

 introduced to its new associates, without fear of its conveying to them 

 the germs of a terrible disease: prevention is better than cure, even 

 where the latter is at least a possibility; what then when there is 

 absolutely none? 



Red-wings being expensive birds, it will, of course, be policy to 



