146 The Canary Book. 



birds themselves. It will be found that as soon as a bird 

 falls into ill-health it becomes possessed of these objection- 

 able pests, and propagates them rapidly; hence an ailing 

 bird should be removed to a cage, and placed by itself 

 away from other birds, for when once the vermin get a 

 footing they increase rapidly, and more particularly during 

 warm and genial weather, or where the temperature is above 

 SOdeg. If they can get no shelter in the cages they cling 

 to the birds, hence it will be found a good plan to use 

 hollow perches, so constructed and arranged that the parasites 

 can easily get access to them. They should be fixed by sus- 

 penders made of wire or tin to the back and front of 

 the cages, and a little cotton wool should be placed in each 

 of the hollow ends, to provide a shelter, and it will form 

 an attractive place of refuge. The perches should be removed 

 daily, the wool extracted, and the parasites dislodged and 

 destroyed. The birds, as well as their cages and nests, 

 should be freely dusted at short intervals with pyrethrum 

 powder, which is an excellent safeguard against the encroach- 

 ment of these unwelcome intruders. Another remedy I have 

 found of great service in destroying these pernicious pests 

 is sulphate of copper, commonly called blue-stone, but it 

 should only be used cautiously and in bad cases, as it is a 

 strong poison. Carbolic acid and Fir-tree oil are likewise 

 useful remedies. Birds badly attacked by these little blood- 

 suckers should be washed in a bath strongly impregnated 

 with alum, which will add much to their comfort by ridding 

 them of their enemies. As a further preventive to the 

 accumulation of these insects it will be found advisable to 

 add a little alum dissolved in water to the whitewash with 

 which the breeding-cages are coated out ; a weak solution of 

 alum may likewise be given with great advantage to the 

 birds to bathe in, once or twice a week, in dry weather, 

 as this mineral destroys the pests. Another precaution should 

 be taken, and that is to rub the nest tins or boxes inside 

 with a little sweet oil or butter. I have likewise found 

 camphor, placed in small bags and hung at the ends of my 



