THE HOSPITAL 87 



or annoyed in any way, and must be carefully 

 watched. 



Often a bird will mope on his perch, swelled 

 out and motionless, eating nothing. The diffi- 

 culty may be that he has swallowed a rubber 

 band, a string, or something he cannot digest, 

 and after an hour or so he will throw it up, 

 matted into a little ball. If this ball is not at 

 once removed from the cage, he will be sure 

 to swallow it again, and have the whole proc- 

 ess of discomfort and disgorging to repeat. 

 A rubber band seems to be irresi-stible to all 

 the thrush family. I suppose the elastic qual- 

 ity deceives them, and they consider it a 

 worm. Whatever the reason, they cannot be 

 cured of the habit of laboriously swallowing 

 it, and as laboriously throwing it up again. 



One of the first operations a bird -keeper 

 may have to perform is cutting a bird's claws, 

 which, unfortunately, grow so long in cage 

 life that they catch on perch and wire, and en- 

 danger his legs and even his life. The bird 

 should be caught as gently as possible, and 

 something light, as a cambric handkerchief, 

 thrown over his head, so that he may not see 

 the formidable preparations. This operation 



