l82 



Than such a cage, which I believe is specially con- 

 structed for Nightingales, nothing could well be worse, 

 and to add to its insanitary horrors the tray was quite 

 without sand, being covered instead with a sheet of 

 paper, under the delusion that the changing of it once 

 every day was an exceedingly sanitary procedure. 

 The unfortunate Wagtail was almost a skeleton ; its 

 feet were swollen, with red and shiny joints, and its 

 discomfort in trying to maintain a balance on the 

 slippery perches, too wide for it to grasp, was painful 

 to witness. 



I immediately gave the bird's feet a good bathing 

 with a hot saturated solution of boric acid, and then 

 transferred him to an open wagon cage with the food 

 and water in outside glasses, with half an inch of 

 coarse river sand on the bottom, and furnished with 

 three perches made of the roughest slicks, with the 

 bark and knots left on, which I could find. The sand 

 absorbed the moist discharges, and since it was 

 changed every day, provided a comparatively dry and 

 clean surface for the poor little bird to walk on, while 

 the perches, being round, small, and rough, afforded a 

 hold to his toes, and obviated the pain and irritation 

 previously associated with the vain and never ceasing 

 attempts to successfully grasp the smooth and flattened 

 perch with rounded edges, which, because it is never 

 found in the bird's natural surroundings, is thought 

 by our wise men to be the correct thing for a bird in a 

 cage. They evidently think that with the change from 

 freedom to captivity the muscular system is changed 

 as well. 



At the same time as I put the bird into a more 

 hygienic cage I changed the artificial rubbish which I 

 found in his food vessel for something considerably 

 more adapted to his organism, viz., plenty of meal- 

 worms and my ordinary mixture of dried flies, ant 

 eggs, and unsweetened biscuit, given dry. The rest 



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