88 CaiVaries and Cace-Birds. 



ears of its children, faints at the idea of taking an inch off a lap-dog puppy's tail ; but we have no 

 right to pooh-pooh the feeling which says, Show me a necessity and I will comply with it, but I 

 decline to inflict probable pain which is needless. Admitting that the pain is only momentary, 

 and that if the operation be performed skilfully it may be hardly perceptible, and, further, that it 

 may be reduced to almost nil by being done at intervals, still we think the position is scarcely 

 tenable on strictly natural grounds, and on that, if on no other, we think the opponents of the 

 practice have the best of the argument, and ought not to be submitted to such an alternative as 

 being virtually driven from the show-field as the penalty for the exercise of faithful devotion to 

 principle. In the case of broken or frayed feathers, however, we think the bird is as much 

 benefited by their removal as inconvenienced by the operation, and all that is necessary is to hold 

 that portion of the wing from which the injured feather springs firmly between the finger and 

 thumb, and then the smarter the twitch, the less will be the pain. A few of the small body- 

 feathers can be pulled out in the same manner, and they are really so small in the quill that the 

 probable pain is not worth a moment's consideration. 



The first place on which the new feathers will be observed is on the breast, where a rapid 

 growth takes place, the feathers on the longitudinal strips on either side quickly expanding and 

 covering the whole, giving the breeder a fair opportunity of judging as to the future character of 

 his bird. Very unlikely-looking specimens in the flight-cage may, perhaps, bid fair to become gems. 

 Any such should be removed at once into single cages ; indeed, it is this early promise which 

 eventually settles what are to remain to be moulted in company and what are to receive a special 

 preparation ; for we have already said that the nest-feathers are not a sure criterion of future 

 merit. The back next begins to throw out its new covering ; but the breeder will notice that there 

 is a vast difference in the rate at which the work progresses in different birds. Some seem to go 

 into it with a will, and there is a simultaneous casting of the whole plumage : others are very 

 lazy over it, and, in some cases, the moult is lingering and protracted in a most tedious manner. 

 Our experience has always been that a rapid moult is best in every way, and we believe this 

 opinion is shared by the entire Fancy, not more for the sake of the bird than for the character of 

 the results, which are always more satisfactory. We cannot help the "why.?" coming in on the 

 presentation of any natural phenomenon, and we think the "because" which answers it in this 

 case is, that the same amount of vital force which enables the bird to throw off its old feathers 

 enables it to produce its new ones with corresponding vigour ; or, inverting the reason, we would 

 say that it is the speedy production of the new growth that displaces the old; and where we find 

 healthy action at work in one direction, it is only natural to infer it is going on in others, and 

 vigorous growth is therefore accompanied by vigorous feather-action of every kind. A lack of 

 ability to produce new feather will, in the same way, be attended by corresponding inability 

 to carry on the other part of the work, and a slow moult, therefore, generally means deficient 

 colour. We may extend this yet a step further, and say that in cases in which birds are late 

 in going into moult, or show signs of not being able to moult at all, it is no cruelty to pull out 

 a considerable portion of the feathers, and by thus compelling a growth do our best to set the 

 machine in motion, in the hope that when once set going it may gather impetus and finish a 

 work it had not the power to begin. The bird lias to moult or die, and desperate diseases 

 require desperate cures. If we had a bird which, after going so far, seemed to have no power to 

 go farther, leaving the head, the last portion to cast its feathers, unfinished, we should, in the 

 absence of any knowledge how to restore the vital energy, at once pluck the head and remove 

 the obstruction. It is no use to talk of cruelty; it would be cruelty not to do it. It might be 

 a clumsy, mechanical way of getting over the difficulty, but if we did not know how to set the 



