162 BIRD-KEEPER'S MANUAL. 



leg between your fingers, cut the nails off the 

 claws with a pair of sharp scissors ; you need not 

 cut too far up, to touch the quick, as it hurts the 

 bird, (but it will not injure it) ; if you should the 

 first, cut less off the others. 



MOULTING. Though not, properly speaking, a 

 disease, yet during this operation of nature, all 

 birds are more or less sick, and some suffer se- 

 verely. And it is rather remarkable, that this is 

 the case even among birds of the same species, 

 some getting through the operation much easier 

 than others. If we look at birds in a state of na- 

 ture, we will find that at the time of moulting they 

 have their food in the greatest abundance scat- 

 tered around them in profusion, when they are 

 least capable of making exertions to procure it. 

 The mode of treatment of birds, in a domestic 

 state, is here clearly pointed out. They require 

 plenty of nourishing food, as near natural as we 

 can possibly procure it. Worms, insects, and 

 fruit, to those birds who eat them, and to those 

 who live upon dry seeds, bread dipped in milk, 

 fruit and vegetables : to supply the waste of 

 moisture and strength, occasioned by the growth 

 of an entire new covering for their bodies. 



Loss OF YOICE. -- Sometimes it will happen 

 that a bird, after moulting, does not sing. This, 



