58 Practical Bird-Keeping. 



greatest things to guard against with Tanagers is their getting 

 too fat and it is sometimes very difficult to see this in time, 

 because sometimes a fat l)ird will hold himself so sleek and trim, 

 that he looks slimmer than a thin bird, who does the reverse; so 

 the great secret is to keep a careful ej'e on them and directly you 

 see anything wrong with the eye, or breathing, or any signs of 

 diarrhoea, or constipation, you must lake steps at once and make 

 a radical change in the food, and perhaps give a dose of Kpsom 

 salts, or any other simple remedy to meet the case. I have been 

 laughed at very much, l)y some medical men, for mj' attempts at 

 doctoring, but I have certainly had some remarkable cures. 



Tanagers are such a large family that it is hard to say, 

 where they begin or where they end. To the ordinary lay mind 

 it is difficult to trace any sign of Tanager in the Magpie Tanager, 

 whose beak is decidedly Shrike-like, but in captivit}' at ain^ rate, 

 it does not live up to its appearance, eitlier in habits or feeding, 

 though I have seen mine liold a grape skin with its feet and tear 

 it, but I am much more content to call it a Tanager, than I am to 

 accept the decision of many, that the once called Rufous-throated 

 Tanager is a Sugar-bird, I have watclied mine very carefully, 

 but I cannot find any likeness to a Sugar-bird in him. 



The way Tanagers are imported into this country makes it 

 almost impossible to say which are hardy, and one ought to be 

 very careful in making statements about individual birds, though 

 some people think a bird hardy if they keep it for six months. 

 Take for instance the White-capped Tanager. The Zoo had one 

 for many years and my own is still alive, now these birds are but 

 seldom imported, yet I know some have arrived, but we do not 

 hear of them living, still they may be, as there are many aviaries 

 whose inmates are never heard of. The Magpie Tanager I bought 

 j-ears ago was a single importation and was very healthy and 

 lived very well, but I have since seen otheis ariive and die ofi 

 very quickly. 



Tanagers sometimes airive with one, or sometimes both 

 eyes filmed over, very like a cataract, some tliink this is caused 

 by the birds knocking their heads coining ovt-i, but I think it is 

 ])ecause the birds are put into dirt\' cases and when they want to 

 clean their beaks, they rub them along the ciirty perch and get 



