Rock Thrushes 67 



handful of fresh hay for the bottom of the cage, so that 

 my thrushes should not arrive in England with soiled 

 and dirty plumage, besides the fact that it helped to 

 keep the cage soigne and sweet. There was no water 

 vessel, because the water is sure to get spilt and mess 

 everything to no purpose ; so my way of quenching 

 the little chaps' thirst, was to dip my finger in a glass 

 of water, letting two or three drops fall down their 

 open throats after their hunger was satisfied. 



People often wondered how my birds looked so 

 fresh and clean and healthy, but they would have 

 wondered still more had they realised the hundred and 

 one little ways with which I obtained so satisfactory a 

 result. Four birds in so confined a space very soon 

 become dirty, the wings and tail soiled, the feathers 

 broken, and the feet clogged. To combat these eye- 

 sores, one must, on a journey, sponge the soiled 

 feathers and feet, and if some of the food has dried 

 round the edges of the mouth it can be washed off 

 carefully with a wetted finger, to the improvement of 

 the bird's appearance, and its manifest comfort. 



We all know the joy of sponging one's face when 

 the dust and cinders of the train have choked up the 

 pores of the skin. 



With insectivorous food given in a moistened and 

 pasty form it is very difficult to feed young birds for 

 long without some accumulation of it outside their 

 mouths, for as they swallow it voraciously down, 

 particles are almost bound to break off, and be worked 

 to either side of the bird's mouth. 



And all this fussy care on my part is not without 



