Roup, Catarrh, or swelled head, is shown by feverish symptoms, swollen eyelids, frequently terminating in blindness, rattling in the throat, and temporary strangulation. These are accompanied with a highly offensive watery discharge, from the mouth and nostrils, loss of appetite, and much thirst. They should be placed near the fire; their head bathed in warm Castile soap-suds, or milk and water. Stimulating food, as flour or barley-meal, mustard and grated ginger, mixed and forced down the throat, Boswell says, has been effectual in their speedy restoration. This, like many other diseases, is contagious, and when it appears, the bird should be at once separated from the flock.
Flux is cured by the yolk of an egg boiled hard; and boiled barley soaked in wine.
Costiveness is removed by giving bran and water with a little honey; or give a small dose of castor oil.
Vermin are destroyed by giving them clean sand and ashes to roll in, adding a little quicklime if necessary.
Entire cleanliness is necessary for the avoidance of this and other diseases. A perfectly dry range is also essential, nor should there be too many together, as this is a fruitful source of disease.
THE TURKEY.
This bird was unknown to the civilized world till the discovery of this Continent. It was found here both in its wild and domesticated state; and still occupies the whole range of the western hemisphere, though the wild turkey disappears as the country becomes settled. The wild is larger than the domesticated bird, sometimes weighing over 30 lbs. dressed. The color of the male is generally a greenish brown, approaching to black, and of a rich, changeable, metallic lustre. The hen is marked somewhat like the cock, but with duller hues. Domestication through successive generations dims the brilliancy of their plumage, and lessens their size and hardiness. It also produces a variety of colors, though they are mostly of a black, buff, pure white, or speckled.
They give evidence of the comparative recency of their domestication, in the instinct which frequently impels the cock to brood and take care of the young. Nothing is more common than for the male bird to supply the place of the hen, when any accident befalls her, and to bring up a family of young chicks with an equally instinctive regard for their helplessness and safety.
The flesh of this bird, both wild and tame, is exceedingly delicate and palatable; and though not possessing the high game flavor of some of the smaller wild-fowl, and especially of the aquatic, as the canvass-back duck, &c., it exceeds them in its digestibility and healthfulness. The turkey is useful principally for its flesh, as it seldom lays over a nest-full of eggs in one season, when they brood on these and bring up their young. If full-fed, and their first eggs are withdrawn from them, they frequently lay a second time.