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REPORT OF BOARD OF FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONERS. 
Lettuce is a splendid food for young birds, and they should have it 
all the time. Fasten a head to the ground with a sharp stick and the 
birds will pick it off as they want it. Leave no remnants of food around 
the pens to become stale, and keep everything as clean and dry as pos¬ 
sible. Dampness causes colds and gapes. Have plenty of fine grit and 
sand in reach at all times, and it is well to keep a pan with such food as 
is fed to the adult birds in the coop so that the youngsters may learn to 
eat it. 
For watering the young birds, it is best to use the fountain jars that 
can be bought of any poultry supply house. The quart size is the best. 
Their drinking water must always be fresh and the fountain jars (and 
food pans) should be cleaned and scalded every day. 
Usually the birds can be moved to the large runs by the time they are 
two or three weeks old. Don’t put them with old birds. By the time 
they are five weeks old they may be fed anything they would find in the 
wild state. Young birds (as well as old) must always have dust or 
ashes to ‘ ‘ dust ’ 7 themselves in. This is their way of taking a bath and 
freeing themselves from insects. 
DISEASES OF PHEASANTS* 
By George Byron Morse, M.D., V.S. 
In charge of investigations of diseases of birds and cold-blooded animals, United 
States Bureau of Animal Industry. 
DISEASES AFFECTING YOUNG PHEASANTS. 
Pasting .—Pasting occurs usually during the first week of life. The 
chick loses its vivacity, sits with eyes closed and its downy coat fluffed 
until it appears like a ball. Examination reveals the vent plugged or 
covered by a whitish, chalky, or pasty substance. This stoppage of the 
vent frequently leads to death in a day or two as the result of the 
absorption of putrefactive poisons due to retention of the feces. Treat¬ 
ment consists in the immediate, gentle removal of this chalky plug and 
the application of a few drops of sweet oil or a bit of petrolatum. 
Diarrhea .—Whitish diarrhea may be caused in very young chicks by 
cold, by overheating, by overfeeding, or by too little or too much water. 
The observant fancier will come to recognize these conditions almost 
instinctively, and will relieve them by at once altering the regime. This 
should be all that is necessary. If more is required it is evidence that 
either the case has been permitted to run so long that the chick is too 
weak to recuperate or infection is operating. 
White diarrhea of chicks, so dreaded by the poultryman, is an affec¬ 
tion of pheasant chicks as well. The diarrhea is merely a symptom of a 
severe infection of the intestines, especially of the blind pouches or ceca, 
