308 A HAND-BOOK OF THE MANAGEMENT OF AJVIMALS 



condition in cages with brick floorings and masonry tanks. Tuberculosis 

 of the lungs and liver is not uncommon among various species of 

 aquatic birds. Leprosy of the liver has been met with in spotted bill 

 and pink-headed ducks. Disease of oil glands has often been noticed in 

 new arrivals; the birds neglect preening, and their feathers get wet, 

 resulting, not unfrequently, in cold, rheumatism, and other ailments.; 

 dirt, confinement, and overcrowding during transit usually cause this 

 disease. The gland should be gently washed with tepid water and dirt 

 sticking about the place removed, and until its action is established, 

 the patient should not be exposed to wet: it is also brought on by 

 general debility and organic disorders. 



Observations on their habits. 



Cormorants are never shy; when sitting on a perch or on the 

 ground they generally keep their wings slightly expanded. This habit is 

 more noticeable in the little cormorant than in the larger species. They 

 dive for fish and hunt it under water, and such is the force of habit 

 that, when a fish is thrown on the floor, the cormorant picks up one, 

 immediately betakes to water, and after having swum and dived for a 

 few seconds, comes ashore to eat it. The snake-birds have almost iden- 

 tical habits with the cormorants ; those in this garden seem to be very 

 retiring. 



The same set of pelicans have been observed to resort to a particular 

 tank immediately after the first shower of monsoon rain, and having 

 enjoyed fishing for five or six days, to desert it until about the same 

 time the next year ; they never dive, but when hunting for fish 

 frequently plunge their beak deep into the water, the tail raised perpen- 

 dicularly above its surface ; it would remain in this position struggling to 

 find something for ten to fifteen seconds ; they actively engage themselves 

 in hunting for food after the sun has gone down in the evening, some- 

 times continuing the operation at night, particularly if there is moon- 

 light ; they fish at other times also, especially in the morning, but not 

 so regularly. When regularly fed at a particular spot, they congregate 

 there at the approach of the feeding time and show their eagerness and 

 impatience for food by frequently opening their mandibles in imitation 

 of the action of receiving food into the pouch. The delicate flapping 

 movement of their exentsile pouch is most visible while they are resting 

 during the middle of the day. Swans are very cleanly in habits, and 

 spend much time and attention in cleaning their feathers every morning 

 after breakfast ; some may be seen on shore assiduously engaged in 

 preening, others in water- washing themselves, passing the beak over every 

 part of the body, and now and then beating the water with both wings 

 to splash it over every part. Their toilet finished, some repair again 

 to the feeding vessel to finish its contents, others retire for a nap or for a 

 quiet sail. The swans gather together in the shade during the midday 

 heat of the summer, and remain quietly floated for hours, as if afraid to 

 venture out in the sun. Swans are not unfrequently seen to fall sound 

 asleep while floating on the water and to drift along at the mercy of the 

 breeze. Extremely graceful in the water, a swan is very awkward and 

 clumsy in its movements on land ; it feels relief on nearing the water; and 



