FOOD >AXD CARE. 2(>9 



fed insects commonly called bird-vermin. Cover the cage at night with a white 

 cloth, and if there are vermin they will be found on the cloth in the morning. 

 Clean the cage, and dust the German insect-powder into the joints ; and catch the 

 bird and sprinkle the powder under his wings and around his neck. Two thorough 

 applications are usually sufficient. 



The food for nestling Mocking-birds is boiled egg and boiled potato mixed in 

 the proportion of half an egg to a medium-sized potato. This will furnish enough 

 for one bird one day. It should not be given all at once, but put in the cage fresh 

 two or three times a day : otherwise it will get soiled or sour. 



Spiders and grasshoppers may be given alive, and a few whortleberries may be 

 furnished for dessert. After feeding the egg and potato for three or four weeks, a 

 teaspoon ful of the dry prepared food for Mocking-birds should be mixed with it ; 

 and the quantity of egg and potato and food can be increased as the bird seems to 

 demand it. Later on, the grated, raw carrot and the prepared food can be given in 

 place of the egg and potato. Young birds do not require ants' eggs, meal-worms, 

 and berries ; but these should be furnished in small quantities when the birds are 

 four or five months old. 



The Mocking-bird cage should be not less than twenty-two inches long, and one 

 twenty-four or twenty-eight inches is better still. For other information on these 

 birds, see the article on Mocking-birds. 



JUNE JULY. 



Young birds commence to moult when six weeks old, and it continues for two 

 months. It is a season of special danger to young birds moulting for the first time. 

 The symptoms of the approaching moulting may be readily seen. The birds 

 become sad and sleepy in appearance, and sit upon their perches or the bottoms of 

 their cages, with their heads under their wings, for the greater portion of the da} 7 : 

 while the floors of the cages are covered with small pin-feathers, which they shed 

 during all the time until the new ones appear. They are apt to eat very sparingly, 

 and only that description of food which they most prefer, and which should always 

 be supplied to them. Boiled egg, both white and yolk, with bread-crumbs or 

 cracker-dust mixed with it, should be daily given. Great care must be taken at 

 this time to give them the richest kinds of food, such as hemp-seed and sponge- 

 cake. One of the worst things that can happen to a Canary is, to be put at this 

 season in a cold place, or where a draught can reach him. He should, so far as 

 possible, be kept in an even, warm temperature, and be put every day in the sun- 

 light for at least an hour. Should the moult prove uncommonly bad, give him daily 

 a piece of sponge-cake soaked in sherry wine : this will greatly invigorate him. 

 Every day or two, so long as he seems drooping, blow a little sherry wine over his 

 feathers, and then hang him in the sunlight, or near the fire. 



Coarse gravel is very beneficial in the moulting-season, and care should be taken 

 to daily furnish an abundant supply. 



Other seed-eating birds should be treated in the same manner as recommended 

 for the Canary. 



Mocking-birds, Thrushes, and other soft-bill birds, should also have the same 



