<58 Song Birds. 



Watercress is invaluable for keeping birds in good 

 health : indeed, they are not often ill while they are 

 kept clean, free from draughts, well supplied with 

 this favourite salad, and not crammed with all sorts 

 of trash. 



5. It is very essential also to see that their seed 

 is good, that it is bright and well-filled, and that 

 it has not been where mice can get near it, for 

 mice seem in all ways great enemies of birds. I 

 do not know how it is, but the terror birds have of 

 them is singularly great. My very favourite Gold- 

 finch was killed last winter by a mouse one night 

 running round the cage, the cold probably having 

 made it bold, and bird seed being tempting : before 

 I could take the poor little fellow in my hand, it 

 had fallen down on the floor of the cage quite dead. 

 It might be from fluttering too hard against the bars, 

 or, as I thought, from a fit. When a bird is sitting, 

 mice are very dangerous if they get up to the nest. 



6. Sometimes, especially if a bird builds early in 

 the year while the weather is cold, she will be 

 subject to a sort of fit when she begins to lay her 

 eggs or sits ; probably cold weather renders her 

 much more exhausted. In the cold spring this year, 

 one of my birds was very ill indeed ; she lay on 

 her side with all her feathers fluffed out, and did 

 not even stir when her mate in the excess of his affec- 

 tionate disquietude perched himself on her shoulder, 



