260 CANARIES AXD CAGE-BIRDS. 



Parrots do uot all eat the same food. One will thrive 011 hemp-seed, another on 

 imhulled rice and hemp, while a third requires these two and cracked corn : all 

 these may disagree with a fourth. Generally the three seeds are mixed in equal 

 parts, and a parrot allowed to select those he likes. The effects of the food should 

 be watched, and the bird deprived of either that seems harmful. For a drink, 

 coffee is much better than water ; but, whichever is used, let most of the liquid 

 be absorbed in cracker or stale bread. Roasted peanuts may be fed, but avoid the 

 rich, oily nuts, and all greasy food and chicken-bones. A bird fed on greasy food, 

 which makes the blood impure, will soon pull out his feathers ; and it will take 

 months to restore him to good health. The larger your Parrot-cage, the healthier 

 your bird will keep, and the more freely will he talk. The stands, either with or 

 without swings, are preferable to any cage. A bird should learn to stay on the 

 stand without being chained, and on it keeps in much better plumage, and, with 

 the greater exercise, in better order. Special cages are used to put over the stands 

 at night. 



NOVEMBER DECEMBER. 



If any male Canary is now out of song, there must be some ailment that requires 

 "heroic" treatment. Catch your silent bird, hold him so that his back is against 

 the palm of your left hand, then lightly blow apart the feathers on his breast : if 

 his breast-bone is sharp, and not well filled on each side with flesh, either you are 

 feeding him poor seed, in which case he eats almost constantly, and gets in 

 thinner flesh daily, or else his digestion is poor. A bird in that low condition 

 may also have insects, which fact a white cloth spread over the cage at night, and 

 examined early in the morning, will disclose. In any case make a radical change 

 of food : if the bird has been eating hemp-seed, though this is not likely, give 

 him not another grain ; if he has been eating the regular proper seeds, one-third each 

 of German summer rape, Sicily canary, and domestic millet, withhold all of them 

 for a week, and feed him only the hemp. Watch and see if he has strength enough 

 to crack it ; if not, crush it for him. If possible, let him have a cage fourteen to 

 twenty inches long ; strew its whole pan with gravel, and give the bird, daily T 

 besides all the hemp-seed he can eat, one-third of a hard-boiled egg chopped fine ; 

 also put a piece of sweet apple where he can eat all of it he desires. If necessary, 

 continue this diet of hemp-seed two or four weeks, or until the bird is in fair physi- 

 cal condition ; then return to the regular bill of fare. If a Canary has the asthma, 

 which he shows by hard breathing, and making a squeaky noise, hang a piece of raw, 

 fat salt pork in his cage, first sprinkling it well over with strong cayenne pepper. 

 Feed also plenty of rape-seed, and but little of the other seeds. Frequently, when 

 these homoeopathic remedies fail to alleviate, some one of the numerous "bird- 

 cures," " tonics," or " restorers," will be found beneficial. If you have confidence 

 in your bird-dealer, let him see the bird : he can usually decide what ailment the 

 bird has, and will prescribe proper remedies. 



The soft-bill birds are not yet many of them in song, and need extra food, and 

 careful attention. Set it down as a rule never to be deviated from, that, when a 

 male bird is out of song, he requires better food, and more care than usual. Buy 

 the richest, most li meaty " food obtainable, and mix with it raw carrot fresh grated, 



