living Birds foi' Shipment. 17 



or brown, it is rank and poisonous. Many valuable birds are 

 lost by using bad hemp-seed. 



Bran and Pollard, — Exi)erience has showTi that these may be 

 used almost constantly. The birds are prevented from becoming 

 too fat during their captivity by mixing bran or pollard with 

 their food. These articles are especially good when mixed with 

 meat, boiled rice, fruit, or fat. 



Fruit {raw, cooked, or preserved). — Fruit of almost any kind 

 appears to answer well, and, when prepared and mixed with any 

 one or more of the different ingredients mentioned in this paper, 

 forms a food at once acceptable to these birds. Judging from their 

 condition after some months' experience, there can be no doubt 

 of the beneficial effects of the fruits I have employed, viz. apples, 

 pears, oranges, raisins, figs, currants, &c. The best manner of 

 using them is to mix them with meal, bran, or flour, and to 

 pass them through a mincing-machine. In this way they are 

 chopped or ground fine enough to mix with the other food, 

 the admixture of the meal preventing the loss of the juices of 

 the fruits. 



Potatoes and Carrots. — Potatoes require to be boiled or baked, 

 and then ground or mixed with meat, fruit, meal, &c. 



Carrots may be boiled and then mixed ; or if first ground and 

 put into a pan to stew or bake, then mixed, they answer instead 

 of fruit very well. 



Mec/. — Flesh of almost any kind, raw or cooked, will answer 

 (always avoiding that that has been salted). A small quantity 

 of fat is not objectionable. It must be well mixed with meal, 

 as too much fat would be injurious. 



Liver. — As fresh animal food is not always at hand, liver cau 

 be prepared in the following way. It is found to agree well with 

 the birds, and can be kept any length of time : — Cut a bvdlock's 

 liver into slices, boil it half an hour, then cut it up in a mincing 

 machine, place it in shallow dishes or tins, and put it into a slow 

 oven until quite dry. In this state it may be kept well in tins, 

 or still better in jars. 



Eggs, boiled hard and chopped fine or ground, are excellent 

 for most birds, and can be mixed with almost any kind of 

 food. 



VOL. IV. C 



