70 CaiVaries and Cage-Birds. 



crowding must be avoided, and ample perch accommodation provided. It is the want of this that 

 frequently leads to quarrelling and mischief. Birds like their own particular corners and places to 

 sit and roost in, and commence early in life the business of elbowing their neighbours who get in 

 their way. When there is space at command, a portion of the bird-room may be partitioned off 

 for a large flight, and enclosed with wire netting. Such a place requires no description, as it must 

 be left entirely to circumstances ; but a little ingenuity, a few strips of wood, and a few yards of 

 fine galvanised netting, mixed up judiciously, ought to do a great deal. Keep the flight, whether 

 large or small, scrupulously clean ; arrange the perches so that when roosting the birds cannot 

 soil each other ; give plenty of good sound seed, whole and crushed ; plenty of seedy green food, 

 including bunches of the smaller plantain which ripens its short heads (the " soldiers and sailors " 

 with which children play) in June, and contains a quantity of seed nearly as large in the grain as 

 canary ; clean sand and clean drinking water, with the addition of a bath every morning ; do not 

 give much soft food, and scatter what is given rather than allow it to stand and become sour, and 

 everything will have been done to promote a hardy constitution and robust growth. The self- 

 supplying seed-hopper and water fountain (Figs, i and 2) are the suitable furnishing for a flight-cage. 

 We wish we could at once go to the next part of our subject without a " but." The flight- 

 cage, however, is often the scene of a malady which carries off many young birds. It is not our 

 intention in this place to enter on the subject of diseases, but we refer to this particular form as 

 belonging to management and rearing. During the earlier part of their existence young birds 

 spend a good deal of time in sleep ; but a healthy sleep must not be mistaken for unhealthy 

 listlessness, and when one is observed to sit thick and lumpy, with its feathers at all ruffled up, 

 it should at once be caught and examined by blowing up the feathers of the breast and lower 

 part of the body, when, in place of a plump breast, there will most probably be found indications 

 of wasting, and more or less of inflammation about the abdomen, arising from the presence of 

 unwholesome and undigested food, causing general disarrangement of the system. This may have 

 been induced, in the first place, by the bird eating stale green food or sour egg-mixture, or from 

 partaking too freely of such delicacies as may have been introduced into the flight from time to 

 time. And it means " going home " speedily, if some prompt remedial measures are not applied. 

 We are almost as much opposed to the use of purgatives as we were once an advocate for them ; 

 but we have found one or two drops of castor oil, administered by dropping it into the throat from 

 the point of a stick, will empty the bowels quickly; and by putting the invalid on crushed seed, 

 and keeping it in a warm place, we have saved many a one. We have also been very successful in 

 similar cases by following this treatment by doses of cod-liver oil, which can be easily given by 

 removing the water-tin for an hour or two, and returning it floated with the oil. As a general 

 precautionary measure we may say that, in our opinion, the principal ailments of young birds 

 arise, from disarrangement of the digestive organs and inflammation, and that careful attention to 

 dieting, and keeping the invalid near the fire, will do as much as anything to restore health. Heat 

 is indispensable, and it is astonishing to what an extent sick birds are benefited by it. 



