22 
The Value of Heat for Ailing Birds. 
[Dr. Lovell-Keays is apparently jioL aware of the cxtout to whic'.i 
othett'S have used heat, both for aciclimatisatioii purposes and for 
ailingt bu'ds. Several times, >Ir. H. Gray, our Hon. Veterinary 
Surg'eoii, has advised dry heat in (he Post Mbrtem Eeports, especially 
as regards egg -binding, we will quote one: "Continuous dry heat of 
a high degi-ee is hetter than steaming." This quotation, we be- 
lieve to be the first refereaioe to dry heat as a remedy for egg-bindingj 
in the public press, and Mr. Gray has since repeated it in oth'eii! 
journals. The writer too, has used it with 'birds picked up helpless-, 
and thus saved many, and has quoted the instance of a Mfagpie Man- 
nikin many times, which was subjected to extreme heat and recovered, 
a,fter which it was kept indoors for tJiat winter and lived out of doors, 
for three years aftei'wards, having' been eig'ht years in his posses- 
sion when it died — thus it was an acclimatised bird at the lime of 
its illness. Several have used acclimatisation cages with a chamber 
underneath in which a lamp was kept burning' and have also used 
these cages as sick wards. Others, possessing hot -houses, have .saved 
new arrivals when almost in extremis by placing the cage in the 
hot-house, but this was not dry heat though averaging 80° F. How- 
ever, all these notes are more or less oibscui'e being buried among- 
other details, and we are greatly obliged to Dr. Lovcll-Keays for 
his important and interesting communication ; a very significant 
featui-e of which is, tbat he subjected all ailing) birds (some ap- 
parently dead) to his dry heat treatment irrespective of character of 
illness with great success. We trust this is but one of many com- 
munications on all topics of aviculture that will appear in the Club 
Joui'nal from his pen. 
Before closing this note I will a^ain quote Mr. H. Gray, for 
the benefit of our members on this important topic: 
"Bii'ds can withstand a temperatru'e of 100° F. or more for 
"hours together. This is due to the fact that birds in general have 
"a very high temperature: for instance fowls 106.5° F., Swallows. 
" 112" F. The smaller the birds the higher tJie temperature. Some 
"water birds have a temperature as low as 100-102P F.; the 
"Ostrich's temperatiire is 98" F." 
I am sure my friend Dr. Lovell-Keays will pardon this Edit- 
,orial reference to his weighty article — we certainly desire and solicit 
the result of his avicultural experiments and observations for ".B.N.". 
for the benefit of his fellow members and aviculture generally. — Ed. J. 
♦ 
A Fascinating Bird, 
By W. a. Bainbkidge. 
Thio Long -tailed Tit: I wonder how many readers 
of this magazine have kept Long'-tailed Tits (Acredula caudata, 
Linn.), and are in consequence in a better position than I 
