SEEDS AND FOODS, -RECIPES, DISEASES, MEDICINES. 281 



Change of diet for soft- billed birds should be fresh, ripe, soft fruits of any 

 kind, green food such as lettuce, water-cress, or duckweed. The above, when not 

 in season, may be replaced by dried currants, or ants' eggs which should be scalded 

 before feeding, a piece of split fig, dried flies, grasshoppers, or spiders. Fine- 

 chopped nuts of rich quality, such as walnuts, are very good. The above articles, 

 or a number of them, should be kept in the bird- room ; as they often prevent and 

 cure disease. Meal-worms are a necessity with all of this class of birds. 



Method of breeding meal-worms. An earthern jar or tin box should be used 

 as a receptacle, with a covered top, which should be perforated to admit air. Half 

 fill the jar with bran, oatmeal, flour, or Indian meal, and add a few pieces of old 

 flannel or old shoe-leather. In this, four or five hundred meal-worms may be placed, 

 and if allowed to remain for three mouths, being occasionally moistened with a 

 cloth soaked in stale beer, will become beetles, which again lay eggs, and propagate 

 the species with great rapidity. 



Tropical soft-billed birds should have, as often as possible, fresh fruits such as 

 bananas, oranges, figs, grapes, etc. 



The remarks on the diseases of the seed-eating class of birds apply to the soft- 

 billed birds. An excellent stimulant, or tonic, for the larger birds, in case of sudden 

 sickness, is, to a wineglass of waiter add a teaspoonful of sherry wine : in severe 

 cases brandy may be substituted for the wine. Or use Gunning's Tonic. 



Cramps in the legs and feet often occur among this class of birds, owing to rich 

 food, and may be readily cured by filling the draw-slide of the cage with hot sand ; 

 and, when the invalid has recovered, bathe the legs and feet with warm brandy. 

 A simple cure for hoarseness is, to dip some fresh bread in honey, or dissolved rock- 

 candy. 



A delicacy, when birds are recovering from weakness, is, to mix scalded ants' 

 eggs, and sponge-cake soaked in sherry wine, and plentifully sprinkle it with 

 cayenne pepper. 



Cough-mixture for birds, when suffering from severe colds : To a wineglassful of 

 water add twenty drops of paregoric, a teaspoonful of glycerine, and a lump of 

 rock- candy. 



