16 Birds I Have Kej^t. 



bird catches cold, remove it at once to a warm and sheltered 

 situation, give it a dose, one drop, of castor oil, feed on bread 

 and milk sop, and canary seed, and if the treatment has been 

 begun in time, Dicky, in a day or two, will be himself again. 

 In the matter of egg-binding, to which some hens are liable, 

 the owner must give plenty of mortar-rubbish for the bird to 

 peck at, and not put her up for breeding unless she is in 

 perfect health and condition: should egg-binding nevertheless 

 occur, a drop of oil administered internally, and another applied 

 to the vent, on the point of a camel-hair pencil, will probably 

 enable the bird to deposit her egg; if she seem exhausted after 

 the egg is laid, or the complication recur on the following 

 day, she is a weak bird, and it will be wisest not to attempt 

 to breed from her for a time. Asthma is a troublesome com- 

 plaint with which many parlour Canaries are afflicted; it is 

 produced by the heated atmosphere of the room in which the 

 cage is hung, fusty seed, and draughts, all of which faulty 

 conditions may be avoided; should the complaint be of recent 

 date, a few drops of lobelia tincture, or cubebs tincture, will 

 relieve the most distressing symptoms; but cure is unattainable 

 where the disorder has existed for any length of time. Di- 

 arrhoea is caused by dirty water, too much green succulent 

 food, and sour sop ; avoid such, and give the bird a little chalk 

 in its drinking water. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE BEOWN LIXXET. 



AT the distance of about a mile from our house, on a little 

 furze-covered eminence, stood an old windmill, whose long 

 thin arms, wildly flung out in perpetual battle with the wind, 

 so irresistably reminded me of stories I had heard of monstrous 

 giants and ogres, who, besides defying Heaven, and doing all 



