
reflected in records on food consumption (Table 4). Diets includin were 
accepted reasonably well and while food intake was reduced at the higher level 
of treatment, birds on the 0.05 pe jet ate about th vantity of 
feed_as did the check group. Rhothane (TDE) and methoxychlor appeared to be 
readily accepted by quail and diets including these compounds were utilized in 
about the same degree as the normal diets fed to the control birds. It should 
be pointed out that one of the most prominent poisoning symptoms among birds 
e aphe aring apathy and j ivity. Con- 
sequently, it was difficult under conditions of these tests to distinguish 
between a repellent property of these compounds and reduced feeding that may 
have been due to lowered activity of the test animals, | 
Repellency Tests 
In view of repellent properties of some insecticides as denoted by these 
studies on toxicity, an additional test was designed to determine more exactly 
the degree to which birds could detect such adulterants. Under conditions 
already described, individual lots of birds (10 males and 10 females) were 
provided a normal feed ration, and an alternate choice of the same diet which 
included 0.05 percent of one of the insecticides. Using separate test groups 
the following materials were studied for evidences of possible repellency: 
chlordane, toxaphene, parathion, benzene hexachloride and DDT. 
During a 22-day period of study, two separate supplies of food, one 
treated and the other untreated, were maintained at opposite ends of the 
shelter . [To reclude any learning mechanism from influencing results, pans 
of treated and untreated food were reversco frequently and at least once a 
day. {Results of this test are summarized in Table 5. It will be noted that 
over’a 22-day period the total (treated and untreated) food consumption by 
birds offered a choice of plain or insecticide-treated food was 15.2 to 16.5 
grams per bird per day. A check group, subsisting only on plain food, con- 
sumed an average of 17.1; grams per bird daily. While the total food intake 
was comparable in the check and experimental groups, the relative amount of 
treated and plain foods used by the experimental birds varied widely. Indi- 
viduals ered the DDI-trea diet med . no_di mination between 
this.and the unadulterated food. The total food intake included 9 percent 
of the treated lot and 51 percent of the untreated. The diet including 
benzene hexachloride was less readily accepted and only 31 percent of the 
total eaten was from this lot. ra marked ayersion was shown for diets 
including chlordane, toxaphene, or parathion, and of the total daily amounts 
eaten the percentage taken from treated diets amounted only to 9, 8 and 17 
percent respectively. | 
Poisoning Symptoms and Autopsy Results 
Although the behavior of affected birds on different insecticide diets 
was not diagnostic, certain differences seemed apparent. In the case of DpT- 
fed birds, the first evidence of toxic effect was nervous excitability. At 
the 0.1 percent level of feeding, this symptom appeared on the 3rd day of 
feeding. On the lth day, characteristic tremors were observed for these birds, 
and on the 6th day tremors were observed among birds fed DDT at the 0.05 level. 
Among birds on the chlordane and toxapheye diets an almost reverse behavior 
