The Washington times., 1901-08-04
She Doctors Birds.

A Buffalo girl has adopted a novel call
ing She is a bird physician and surgeon,
and finds plenty of occupation in minis
tering to the ailments Of the pet song
sters of her patrons that mdy fall i'll or
meet with accidents. Miss Virginia Pope
has for years made a study of the dis
eases of birds and in their treatment has
won such pronounced success that her
services are in request over a wide extent
of territory.
Bird doctoring was not, in Miss Pope s
case, deliberately chosen as career.
With a great fondness for birds, but with
only an amateurish knowledge of an
atomy and medicine, she once undertook
to treat one of her own pets. She sue
ceeded so well that she then constituted
herself the regular physician oi the five
or six feathered creatures that she hap
pened to own. Between times her enthu-
SiaSm led her to make special study OF
bird structure and of bird diseases, a
knowledge which her friends were not
slow in calling into requisition-
In a year or two all Buffalo knew that
Miss Pope could mend q canarys broken
ankle as easily as regular surgeon
could minister to man. In this way her
pursuit developed into a profes sSion and
in the past few years her success has be-
come a matter of national interest. She
is ready at any instant TO start to any
corner of the country where the owner OF
a suffering bird may call her. As she is
known and in demand from the Great
Lakes to the Gulf and from New York to
San Francisco she spends a good share OF
her time in travelling.
Although primarily surgeon, Miss
Pope is also an expert on bird diseases.
Her patrons say that without feeling a
parrots pulse or inviting recital of its
symptoms she can diagnose malady
which has puzzled every other doctor and
"a
cure 1t naturally follows from her sue
cess that Miss Pope considers bird doc
toring the most engrossing profession in
the world and birds the most gratifying
class of patients conceivable.
1t is a difficult matter to draw Miss
Pope away from her work long enough
chat for few moments the other day in
the interval between two serious opera
tions She did not hesitate to recommend
her profession as an eminently suitable
one~for any woman.
There's that much talked-of maternal
instinct, you know. in all of us. laughed
Miss Pope, that makes woman pariic-
ularly sensitive to the sufferinss OF such
frail little creatures as the majority OF
Gagged birds. Doubtless you have seen
country women rescue MANNED or ailing
chicken and keep IL behind the Kitchen
stove for weeks. watching and ding
and dosing il according TO some instinct
i've method. Now, the chicken usually
gets well, and the woman has really en-
joyed tending 1t. So my work is simply
an extension OF this practice I'm not
often called to tend chickens. of course,
because chickens are. | am afraid, not
worth the price of a doctors
fee. but there are all manner OF fancy
that demand my services in the
course of a year.
The chief requisite for bird doctorins
is | should say, the delicacy of touch |
that every surgeon has to acquire sooner
or later AT first it takes the most extra |
ordinary patience to operate on such tiny
bones and muscles in such tiny bodies, |
but after a while the delicate fussiness be- !
comes "a pleasure rather than trial. /
have handled so many sick birds that /
easy cases do not interest me much now, /
except in so far as | am glad TO relieve /
the suffering of the bird. The more diff !
cult case is the better l enjoy it,"