THE CANAEY. 299 



liest things that can happen to the Canary is to be put at this 

 season in a cold place, or where a draught can reach him. He 

 should he kept in the warmest room, and be put every day in the 

 sun, which should shine on him through the glass. Should the 

 moult prove uncommonly bad, take a piece of sponge-cake, soak 

 it in sherry wine, and give it to him ; this will invigorate and 

 do him much service. After this, and every day or two, as long 

 as he seems drooping, blow a little sherry wine over his feathers, 

 and then place him as before, in the sun or near the fire. A lump 

 of refined liquorice may also be thrown in his water, and, occa- 

 sionally, a little saffron. Be careful that your birds, during this 

 time, are kept supplied with coarse sand or gravel, which is now 

 doubly beneficial to them, and a great assistance in casting their 

 feathers. 



" For surfeit, which sometimes occurs in young birds of from a 

 month to six weeks old, as well as occasionally in old ones, this 

 author recommends a small piece of alum or of rusty iron placed 

 in the water, or a little common salt. Wheaten bread and canary 

 seed boiled in milk are also recommended, as well as a tepid milk: 

 bath, to be succeeded by one of water of the same temperature, 

 the bird to be well dried afterwards, and fed sparingly with let- 

 tuce seed ; this treatment to be continued for two or three days. 



" When Pip makes its appearance, the birds should be fed on 

 cooling seeds, such as lettuce or rape ; if not very bad, the birds 

 may be suffered to break the sore themselves ; but if they appear 

 very heavy and sleepy, they require immediate attention : the 

 upper half of the swelling is to be carefully and gently cut off, 

 the matter pressed out, and the sore touched with a little salt, 

 previously moistened with the mouth ; a further application of 

 moistened brown sugar is to be made, if this treatment appears 

 to cause much pain. Until the boil is sufficiently ripe for cutting, 

 it, and the parts about it, are to be rubbed with a feather dipped 

 in olive oil. 



" The best remedy for Scabs on the Head is light and cooling 

 food, such as lettuce and rape seed, and quietude. 



" The presence of Red Mites may be known by the bird's plum- 

 ing and feathering himself at all hours of the day a thorough 

 cleansing of the cage is the remedy prescribed." 



Diarrhoea is a very common sickness with the Canary, for which 

 neither BECHSTEIN nor NASH prescribe a remedy ; " it may 

 readily be cured," says our author, "by the application of a 

 little sweet almond or olive oil to the belly of the patient, the food 

 to consist of a little cantelope-melon seed, bruised, the yolk of 

 hard-boiled eggs, sponge-cake, and slightly scalded lettuce." 



These birds have sometimes a strange kind of croaking in the 



