PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. 49 



slightest cold must be most carefully guarded against, and the 

 parrot must be placed in a room of a temperature not lower 

 than 65deg. for several hours — indeed, until the plumage is 

 thoroughly dry. A bath may be given once a month ; in warm 

 weather more frequently. The bird soon becomes accustomed 

 to it, and takes an evident delight in it. 



Medium-sized and smaller parrots need only be bathed by 

 compulsion when they will not voluntarily take a bath ; but 

 for this purpose it is better to stick a leafy branch well wetted 

 into their cage, for they mostly prefer to moisten their 

 feathers on the wet leaves. As soon as they are quite accus- 

 tomed to a bath, it should be put in the cage as often as 

 possible, in summer on every warm day, and at other times 

 when the room is thoroughly warm. Before putting in the 

 bath the sand must be taken out of the drawer and the latter 

 covered with paper. After the bath it should be well dried and 

 again strewed with fresh sand. The bath alone, however, does 

 not nearly include all the necessary care of the plumage. In the 

 first place, the opportunity, at least, must be given to every 

 parrot to paddle in the sand and bathe its feathers in it ; most 

 of them do it very eagerly. The sand must possess the 

 qualities mentioned on p. 33, and be perfectly dry and free from 

 dust. 



A very great difficulty in the care of the plumage is the 

 removal of the stumps of feathers which have been broken or 

 cut off. Experience shows that most parrots, especially the 

 larger ones, when in captivity, pass through no regular moult, 

 but that the salutary change of plumage often does not take 

 place for years. As a rule, there is nothing for it but to pull 

 out the stumps of the feathers by force. For this, of course, 

 great caution and care are necessary. From one to three stumps 

 should be drawn out with a little tweezers about every four or 

 six weeks, first from one wing and then from the other, and 

 afterwards in a similar way from the tail. This must be done 

 adroitly and quickly, and care must be taken that the bird be 

 not pressed or hurt in that or any other part of the body. If 

 it should, nevertheless, bleed, the injured place should be 

 moistened with a mixture consisting of one part of tincture 

 of arnica to twenty parts of water. It may here be remarked 

 that severe bleeding may be staunched by dipping the part in a 

 mixture of liquor ferri sesquichlorati, one part to one hundred 

 parts of water, and then covering with freshly-burnt lint of pure 



