128 
The Illustrated Book of Plceoks. 
the sewing-up has to be done. Now upon this, supposing no tendency to mortification to already 
exist, all success depends. Each skin must be sewn up separately ; and the inner or true crop is 
best done with a close and fine stitch ; it must, in fact, be so done that neither food nor water 
can escape. It must not be sewn “ over and over,” as most try to do it. Such a stitch fails, 
because the cut edges are not brought together, but the inner surfaces of the membranes ; which 
take a long time to heal, if they heal at all, and even then always leave the wound twisted or 
drawn. On the contrary, the stitches should pass “ under and over ” each edge of the wound, 
piercing from the inside and then passing over the outside to the inside of the other edge of the 
wound, in the way tailors mend a rent which is in sight, and has .to be repaired as neatly as 
possible. Such a stitch keeps the skin in place, with the cut edges in opposition, in the best 
way for uniting ; and if all the tissues are healthy, healing is easy and rapid. After the crop is 
sewn the outer skin should be sewn up in the same way, but need not be quite so finely done. 
Each seam as it is finished should be smeared with citron ointment ; and the bird is best operated 
on if drawn up to the shoulders into a worsted stocking with the foot cut off, so as to keep it still. 
The first meal after such an operation should be a drink or feed of lukewarm gruel, made rather 
thick so as not to pass through the stitches, and the bird should, of course, be kept quiet and on 
rather short allowance till it is supposed to be healed. The operation appears severe, and 
perhaps is so ; but we have been utterly astonished on several occasions, when performing it botli 
in our own loft and for various friends, to see not unfrequently the imprisoned bird put himself 
into “show ” and play up to a hen when in sight the very next morning ; from which we should 
not suppose the feeling in either inner or outer skin was very great. We have also had fowls after 
the same treatment walk about the next day and appear to enjoy themselves just as usual, though 
in other cases they have appeared to mope and be in some distress for two or three days. 
Some Pouters have the crop always hanging loose or pendulous, which looks very bad. This 
often occurs from a bird having been over-gorged two or three times, and thereby stretched the 
crop too much, so that it does not properly contract again. Such a bird can never properly fill its 
globe, and never looks well or healthy, wandering about evidently in discomfort. The cause of 
this is, that the crop hanging down below the discharging orifice, the food never entirely passes 
out, but remains in the lower part till decomposed, as is proved by the offensive smell which can 
be only too easily perceived at the beak of the bird. This can be remedied by a very similar 
operation to the foregoing ; but in this case a piece must be cut entirely out of each skin, in the 
form of a crescent, so as to reduce the surface and make the crop and skin smaller. This, too, 
must be done across and near the bottom, and the success of the operation as regards showing the 
bird will depend on the careful judgment with which the size and shape of the excised piece is 
calculated. If this is correctly estimated, and the operation well performed, the bird will be 
entirely restored to health and spirits, and, if a fine specimen, become again fit to show. 
Wing disease is to be treated as in the Carrier, and so with canker in the ear if it attacks a 
bird ; but it rarely does attack Pouters, and when it does, seldom in a virulent form. It more 
often appears on the skull ; when it is best treated on the “ let alone ” system we have already 
described, except that in Pouters the mass of diseased matter sometimes seems to break the skin 
with difficulty, in which case a puncture should be made. When the diseased matter is finally 
extruded, the wound left should be carefully cleansed with Condy’s Red Fluid by a bit of sponge 
upon a piece of stick, after which it ought to be touched with a caustic pencil, and the cure will be 
speedily finished. 
The most dreaded of all diseases in the Pouter is what is called by many the “wasting” 
disease, but which we believe to be truly consumption. We consider it to be about as hopeless of cure 
