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as long as possible for the same purpose, and with the 

 same inevitable result ? Or on the other hand does 

 its owner feel some personal rather than a merely- 

 selfish regard for it, and wish his little friend to live 

 as long as possible and as free as possible from the 

 aches and pains inseparable from progressive ill- 

 health ? And these are not all — other conditions 

 under which a bird may be placed will present them- 

 selves to the reader, but enough has been said to give 

 an idea of the scope embraced by the apparently 

 simple request of my correspondent. 



Formidable as it would be I have often con- 

 templated such an article, but have as often abandoned 

 the idea. Kven if they read it, the great majority of 

 laymen would get up from its perusal with a strange 

 mixture of knowledge and misapprehension, due not 

 to lack of intelligence but simply to the want of 

 previous training in natural science. Then again, 

 those members of the two medical professions who 

 have kept themselves up to date in matters of com- 

 parative anatomy and physiology require nothing 

 further on the subject beyond what they can find on 

 special points in such classical works as those of 

 Professors Smith of Philadelphia and von Wolff of 

 Wiirtemburg and others. 



However, for the benefit of my lay friends, who 

 wish to give their seed-eaters the best chance of a 

 reasonably long life under the altered conditions of 

 captivity, I propose shortly giving a few hints as to 

 their feeding, briefly touching upon the main 

 principles which should underly their procedure. 



