366 The Canary Book. 



soap. Pears' soap I have found to answer well, as also white 

 curd, but if a bird is very dirty, thoroughly begrimed, then 

 I advise the use of soft soap and powdered borax, Idr. 

 of the latter to loz. of the former. Mix these ingredients 

 well together and use in moderate quantities, as this mixture 

 makes a powerful lather and requires a good deal of rinsing 

 off to get the soap out of the feathers, but if well done it 

 makes the birds washed with it thoroughly clean. Another 

 formula, which is used for both cleaning and beautifying the 

 feathers, is as follows: Curd soap, dried and powdered, loz., 

 good yellow soap (also dried and powdered) loz., three Jordan 

 almonds, skinned and blanched, orange-flower water and rose 

 water Idr. each; put the powdered soaps into a jar with 

 sufficient water to moisten them, but no more, and place the 

 jar in a saucepan of hot water until dissolved. When the 

 almonds have been skinned and dried with a clean towel, 

 pound them well in a mortar, and when fine add the rose- and 

 orange-flower water gradually, stirring them with the pestle 

 all the time; then strain, and add the soap as soon as it is 

 dissolved, and thoroughly incorporate the whole of the 

 ingredients. When they begin to stiffen, pour into a small 

 tin ready for use. 



Catch the birds you intend to wash and put them in a cage 

 altogether. If they quarrel, throw a cover over them ; for, 

 if they are show birds, which is generally presumed, they must 

 not be permitted to pluck each other. Place them upon a 

 table or some convenient spot near you; but, ere you begin 

 to operate, you must provide yourself with another cage, which 

 should be thoroughly cleaned out and washed, or well rubbed 

 with a cloth, and the bottom of it sprinkled with silver sand; 

 this is to put the birds in to get aired off. In addition to 

 this, you will require a drying cage. Formerly I used a Belgian 

 canary show cage, which I laid upon its side, with perches 

 fixed crosswise inside of it, and I had it entirely covered 

 externally with flannel, except the doorway, and firmly sewn 

 all over it, with a long piece stitched at the hinge side of the 

 door to fold over the opening cut out to allow the door t 



