The Care of Domesticated Animals 
it is to experiment with new serums for 
inoculating men and animals as a preventive 
of and cure for various terrible diseases find 
the guinea pig a very useful subject for 
experiment. But it is as a subject for the 
interest of fanciers and exhibitors that the 
guinea pig has come most prominently for- 
ward of late, and now a very large number 
of agricultural shows extend their classifi- 
cation not only to fancy rabbits but to | 
cavies also, and there exists a National 
Cavy Club, watching over the general 
interests of those who have taken up this 
hobby, besides numerous small clubs 
throughout the country formed of those 
who breed rabbits and cavies. Some of 
the most successful of these animals are 
very valuable—as is only natural, con- 
sidering the large number of cups and 
prizes open to be won by the most perfect 
specimens. I knew quite recently of a 
guinea pig changing hands for £25, and I 
believe that that is by no means an excep- 
tional circumstance. Cavies are not at all 
difficult to manage, and on the whole are 
very hardy. The principal causes cf 
disease amongst them are overfeeding with 
farinaceous foods and insufficient exercise 
—hboth of which causes operate to set up 
liver complaint. Ample exercise and 
plenty of green food are the two main 
essentials to success. 
Vy / 
PARTICULAR care needs to be taken of 
cage birds during the latter 
yee: part of the summer, when 
they are changing their 
plumage. The annual moult necessarily 
involves a great strain upon the constitu- 
tion of a bird and is often attended with 
disease in some form or other. As a rule 
birds which are at liberty get through 
their annual moult without any trouble; 
but those which are kept confined in small 
cages require particular care. If the weather 
-be unusually cold, birds in moult are liable 
to take chills, and they do not seem to 
be able to develop their new feathers as 
[N.B.—Photographs intended for these columns should be addres:cl 
to ‘The Editor, AnimaL Liru, 34, Paternoster Row, E.C.’’} 
Photog ‘aph by 
111 
rapidly as they do when the weather is hot. 
A bird which does not seem to be getting 
through the process satisfactorily is under- 
stood to be “hanging in moult,” and needs 
special attention im the way of warmth and 
stimulating food like hemp-seed with the 
addition of a little chemical food to the 
It is also very desirable to 
drinking water. 
. Reid, is naw, N.B. 
A TAME BLACKBIRD. 
continue a good supply of grcen foods, which 
assist in keeping the birds healthy during this 
period and go a long way towards encouraging 
the rapid growth of the new feathers. I need 
hardly point out how necessary it is to give 
extra attention to foreign birds which have 
been imported from warm climates, as these are 
naturally more liable to suffer in our changeable 
climate here than in their own native haunts. 
ESO FO 
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