249 



want : that is a cure for this fever. I would have given a good 

 sum for a cure about lo years or more ago, when, after years of 

 careful pairing and rearing Norwich Canaries, I had got my 

 birds to the correct type and show condition of excellence, 

 this awful malady cleared me out of about 30 valuable birds in 

 less than a month. I shall never forget the suddenness ol 

 the attack, nor the speed with which it did its deadly work. 



It happened in this way, — I bought two birds from a 

 Canary liawker for, I think, 6/- (the pretty cage made of cane 

 induced me to purchase), and I took them out of this cage and 

 put them into a cage in my breeding room (poor innocent man 

 that I was !) On the second day one of these birds died, and on 

 the fourth day the other one. After that, my hitherto healthy 

 birds began to droop. This was in the month of August, wdien 

 the young had all left their nests and were in flight cages, so I 

 let them all loose, thinking that a good amount of exercise 

 might assist them to recover; but all was in vain, and, as they 

 sickened one by one, I caged them and put them in another 

 room, only to have the pain of seeing them gasping for breath 

 and struggling with this deadly disease until it had done its 

 foul work. About thirty of my birds succumbed and a few 

 survived, but the constitutions of the latter were utterly 

 ruined. 



Now, by the self - sacrificing work of the gentlemen 

 mentioned, we understand all about the disease, but we 

 fanciers are waiting for a simple cure, so that w^e may grapple 

 with it in its first stages and save our birds. 



Someone may say that prevention is better than cure, and 

 suggest giving up the use of egg food : but by giving up egg I 

 fear we should lose more birds still, and where would you get 

 so good a food for young Canaries ? This is a question. Sir, I 

 should like Bird Notes to take up. Has any one tried stale 

 sponge cake slightly moistened with scalded milk .^ Stale 

 sponge cake can be purchased cheaply. 



Arthur Jonks. 



[By the time the end of "The Story of Bird Death " is 

 reached, our correspondent will find his questions answered. — 



Ed.] 



