THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
Hedgehogs are said by many people to be destructive to both chicks 
and eggs, and there seems to be little doubt that they are so ; but crows, 
rooks, jackdaws, and magpies are much worse enemies. Rooks are some- 
times very bad egg-hunters, and will kill the chicks in very dry seasons, 
but crows, both black and hooded, are the most serious menace, and a 
family party of these birds will carry off and suck every “ wild -laid ” 
egg in a covert. Of course such a catastrophe is due to bad management, 
for it should be easy for a keeper to trap every pair of crows when they are 
nesting, long before the young pheasants are hatched. Hawks and owls do 
a certain amount of damage at times, especially sparrow-hawks and in- 
dividual tawny owls if they happen to have young near the fields where 
young pheasants are being reared. Very occasionally a kestrel will take 
to carrying off chicks, and the individual may have to be killed, but these 
useful and valuable birds should be carefully protected. 
Diseases . — Young pheasants suffer from many diseases, especially 
hand-reared birds. One of the commonest of these is “ gapes,” caused 
by small worms which infest the wind pipe ; “ cramps,” a disease of the 
bones of the legs caused by a bacillus described by Klein, and pneumonia 
are also common causes of death; but the most deadly is cocci diosis, 
popularly known as “white diarrhoea,” caused by a parasitic protozoan, 
Eimeria avium ^ the oocysts of which are picked up with the food, grit, and 
drink. The disease is often started by infected hens used as foster-mothers, 
which have become chronically affected. They foul the ground with their 
excrement, and rapidly scatter the oocysts of this deadly complaint, 
which spreads rapidly and often sweeps off an entire stock of young 
pheasants. Another very probable cause of mortality has recently been 
pointed out by Mr W. P. Pycraft. He discovered, lodged in the posterior 
nares of a number of young birds, the larvae of the ovo viviparous flesh- 
fly {Sarcophaga)y and is of opinion that death is due to myiasis, set up by 
these maggots. The small active larvae could be easily deposited by the 
flies in the nostrils of the chick, and would quickly make their way 
thence to the back of the nasal chamber. For information on the subject 
of rearing young pheasants the reader should consult Tegetmeier’s 
“ Pheasants : their Natural History and Practical management.” Valu- 
able hints will also be found in “ The Grouse in Health and in Disease ” 
(i, pp. 266-271), being the final Report of the Committee of Inquiry on 
Grouse Disease, published in 1911. 
W. R. OGILVIE-GRANT. 
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