292 DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



food is concerned, will have no cause to pine over their 

 confinement. 



FOR THE STARLING, THE THRUSH, AND THE LARGER 

 SOFT-BILLED BIRDS. While the foregoing is quite suit- 

 able, indeed preferable, for all soft-billed birds, a less 

 expensive and excellent compound for the larger class 

 may be made up thus : One pound bullock's liver, 

 boiled and grated, and one pound pea-meal, mixed. 

 Then put into frying-pan quarter pound mutton suet. 

 When melted, add the mixture. Do over a slow fire as 

 before directed. When taken off the fire, and still warm, 

 add two ounces of coarse sugar. Let it stand till cold, 

 and then pot. In this case the grains should be as large as 

 a corn pickle. In neither instance should the food be 

 pounded like meal. 



Give as before an occasional meal-worm, maggot, or 

 small caterpillar. These, for both the larger and smaller 

 birds, more abundantly in summer than in winter. Those 

 who cannot be at the trouble of providing this portion of 

 the food, should never keep soft-billed birds of any class in 

 confinement. 



DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



Living as they do in confined air, and to a great extent 

 upon artificial food, caged birds are more subject to ail- 

 ments which shorten life than those in a wild free state ; 

 and yet we do not think that the rate of mortality amongst 

 these feathered prisoners is higher, or indeed nearly so high 

 as that which obtains among birds at liberty, which are ex- 

 posed to many casualties and dangers unknown to the pets 

 of the cage and aviary. Of the diseases to which these 

 latter are especially liable, Bechstein has given a better 

 account than any other writer on the subject, and the in- 

 formation which he affords, combined with the result of 

 the practical experience of others, we here offer to our 

 readers. 



Before proceeding to specify these particular diseases, 

 let us observe generally that birds, like children, are often 

 rendered sickly by over-indulgence. Sugar and other 



