Dr. Hamilton—Parrot Diseases in the Wild State



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The badly affected pair improved, and the eye, though blind, sank

back a little, but these two birds died.


The other pair, not so far advanced, completely recovered. I left

them in this infected cage for three months without further treatment,

and they showed no tendency to relapse.


Ultimately I presented them to a sea captain, who took them to

England, and they have shown no sign of reinfection.


My cages were absolutely new, and were only completed in time

for my trip. They had never had a bird in them, so the infection could

not have come from the cages.


Evidently the birds that I had kept as being free from eye disease,

must have been already infected, though so slightly as not to be

noticeable. The jostling in the cages, and the fright which would

make them dash about, would naturally injure them, and cause the

eye condition to progress rapidly.


One possible explanation occurs to me. For two or three years

prior to this there had been a drought on the west coast, which is a

farming district, and sparsely settled. The country is sandy, and

winds were almost of daily occurrence. Farmers would sow their

crops time after time, watch them sprout and show above the ground,

perhaps 2 or 3 inches. Then came the sand storm, and the

crops were cut off, shrivelled up, and buried with sand. Heartbreaking

for the poor farmers, some of whom sowed their crops five and six

times, and reaped nothing.


It is possible that the constant dust and sand storms with their

flying particles of grit, may have irritated the eyes of the Parrots until

they developed this eye disease. I have no proof, however, and merely

offer it as a suggestion.


I think that early cases of eye disease may be checked, and even

cured in Parrots the size of Many-colours, and the larger ones such as

Barrabands and Bock Peplars (which, by the way, are called Bock

Pebblers with us). But I do not think there is much—if any—chance

of curing the smaller Grass Parrots of the Neophema species.


Soon after my return from the west coast, a patient who lives at

Keith, in the south-east of South Australia (not a great way from

where the Orange-breasted Grass Parrots have been seen), sent me a



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