264 CAXARIES AND CAGE-BIRDS. 



mixed with the food, will each add many variations to the song ; while a lively water- 

 bath, and a long, but not too strong, sun-bath, are sure to have beneficial results. 

 The perches for these larger birds should be about three-quarters of an inch in 

 diameter ; and there should be five perches in cages twenty-four inches long, and 

 only three perches in smaller cages. 



FEBRUAKY MARCH. 



Canaries, and many other species of birds, are troubled with inflammation of the 

 intestines. The causes most likely to produce this are over-eating, especially of 

 " high " food, like eggs, or partaking of green stuff which is in a state of decom- 

 position. Sometimes the drinking-water, which should be fresh and clean each 

 morning, is left unchanged for several days. The symptoms indicate acute pain in 

 the region affected. The bird is dull, cares little to move about, is silent, and often 

 rests bodily on the perch. There is no desire to eat, and great thirst ; and the 

 bowels are usually costive, though sometimes the bird has a diarrhoea. Frequently 

 there is vomiting of the bile and mucus. An examination, conducted very gently, 

 will reveal a swollen and distorted condition of the lower part of the abdomen, 

 with some change of color, varying, according to the stage of the disorder, from 

 pale to dark red, amounting in very dangerous cases to a very dark hue. This 

 inflammation may be cured if treatment is commenced at once, and a decided course 

 followed. Let the bird be put, if possible, into a clean, dry cage, and hung in a 

 warm, well-ventilated room, and the food changed, and be entirely non-stimulating, 

 but at the same time nourishing ; plain crackers mixed with new milk, to which 

 should be added a little moist sugar. Let the bird have only this food for a day or 

 two. If the bird, in the commencement, is constipated, the bowels should be 

 opened with two or three drops of pure oil ; but, if there is much inflammation, 

 purgatives should not be employed. 



Counter-irritation will do much good. Paint the lower part of the abdomen, by 

 means of a camel's-hair brush, with warm turpentine. This gives relief, and should 

 be repeated once or twice if necessary. Opium is of great service in this complaint. 

 Place, therefore, every morning in the fresh water, thirty drops of ipecacuanha wine,, 

 and fifteen of laudanum, along with a bit of gum-arabic, and two or three grains of 

 the nitrate of potash. But in more severe cases we prefer opium in conjunction 

 with belladonna, ten drops of each of the tinctures in the drinking-water, a 

 little gum, and a little sweetening of glycerine. 



Breeding-birds can be fed on. rich food without the danger of evils resulting 

 therefrom that birds not at work might incur. Birds which are" in thin physical 

 condition, so as to be enfeebled, or are, through carelessness, moulting, will not 

 usually mate ; and in exceptionable cases, where they mate and hatch, it is seldom 

 the young birds live. Only a manual examination the actual taking of the bird 

 in the hand will disclose his real condition. Frequently the expression is heard,. 

 " My bird is too fat to sing ; " and it would seem to be the fact, since he looks so- 

 large, because the feathers stand out straight are puffed up; but such a bird i& 

 usually found to be a mere skeleton, and greatly in need of appetizing food and a 

 change of diet. Feed such a skeleton cracker soaked in as much sweet milk as it 



