Notes on my Birds.



235



tlie eyelids standing out as if peas had been forced under the lids ;

by now the swelling is quite gone on one side and nearly on the

other. Most fortunately the bird could always eat, though how

it found its food I don’t know. It is a good plan when you put a

blind bird in a cage to place the seed in a shallow dripping tin (a

fair size) and stand the patient in it. It will feel the food then,

and if it has any intelligence will learn to pick it up.


Now in doctoring birds a little thought is needed, both to

save yourself trouble and the patient pain, and as knowledge

only comes from experience, and these notes are only intended

for beginners in aviculture, it will perhaps not be quite wasted

space to tell you how to nurse a case of this kind. First, before

you catch the bird, get all your things ready on a table. I have

a broad table shelf under the window in the little seed room, and

on this shelf I arrange my things. You need a small clean pot

partly filled with lukewarm water—cold water would chill the

eye too much—and to this add about a third more of boracic

lotion. To bathe the eye use a small piece of medicated cotton

wool, and when bathing do not touch the eye which will be very

tender, just squeeze the lotion over it. When the bathing is

done press the wool dry and with it just mop up any drops that

may have fallen on the feathers. Be sure, and this is important,

to use fresh lotion and water and fresh cotton wool every time

you bathe the eye, don’t make an old lot do twice.


This particular Rufous Dove is very difficult to hold and

he gets worse to manage as he gets better ; he is a big strong

bird and very nervous. It is impossible to have a bird loose in

an aviary that you want to catch three times a day, and an

ordinary cage is awkward, as one cannot get both hands inside

the door, and I cannot catch so large a bird with one hand. The

best plan is to have an invalid box. This you can easily make

yourself out of any old wooden box about 20 inches by 14 inches

and 12 inches high. Take off the lid and all round the inside of

the box tack strong paper to prevent the bird cutting its wings

against a stray splinter or the roughness of the wood. Fix a

perch, nearly touching the bottom across the width of the box;

broom handles, unpainted, and costing twopence each, make

excellent perches when cut up, being just the right width for



