21 



As to Dr. Creswell's statement that it is " the Parrot in a 

 cage" that is addicted to dropping its food into water before 

 eating it, and that it will as readily drop in a cotton-reel or a 

 coin, I may say that my birds are not kept in cages, and I have 

 repeatedly seen both bread and dry biscnit dragged to the 

 water and soaked before being eaten, and my experience of 

 dry bread is that if not soaked by the birds it is igr.ored 

 entirely. I have a female Brotogerys tinpara at the present 

 time that invariably carries her biscuit (which I often give as 

 a treat) to the water, though this may be at the other end of 

 the aviary, and soaks it thoroughly before eating it. She would 

 hardly do this with a reel or a coin ! 



D. Seth-Smith. 



Sir, — In my original paper I pointed out that those species 

 of the Parrot tribe, which we are in the habit of breeding, 

 have made a well-marked beginning towards the attainment 

 of a racial immunity {i.e. as domesticated birds) against the 

 septic diseases which are so fatal to captive birds in general. 

 I went on to sa}' that the reason their death rate is not more 

 than is fortunately experienced is in great measure due to its 

 not being thought necessary to give them ^%^, but that a good 

 deal of the mortality which does exist among breeding lairds 

 and their young is due to giving them soaked bread. 



Now, Sir, you may rest assured that the statement thus 

 made is not merely a rash opinion, such as we too often see 

 advanced, but that it is the result of observations made in 

 connection with several establishments of aviaries — all of theni 

 out of doors and all administered sectmdiim artein. Over and 

 over again I have examined the bodies of feeding parents, 

 nestlings in all stages, and adolescents, (sent to me from 

 different quarters,not all ofthem connected with the Foreign Bird 

 Club), whose deaths I have been able to connect with the use 

 of soaked bread on grounds which to expect you. Sir, to be 

 acquainted with would be idle and presumptuous on my part, 

 but which are both patent and potent in the eyes of those who 

 study the ways of bacteria. 



It is of course open to one and all to disbelieve general 

 truths on the score of their not applying to particular cases, 

 for instance such as your correspondent's, but neither the 

 disbelief on the one hand, nor the individual exemptions on 

 the other, can affect the validity of these general truths. 



As an instance : — some years ago a hard-working clergy- 

 man argued with me that consumption was not catching on the 



