Correspondence.



295



TREATMENT OF MYNAH.


SIR,—May I venture to ask your advice re proper food for the Mynah.

I brought it back from Burma over twelve months ago. On board ship it was

fed on curry and rice, oranges and some beetles. For the last nine months my

daughter has kept it in a big cage—2ft. by 18 in. and 2ft. high — out of doors

during the hot weather and in the kitchen during the winter. It may be the

Lark food, the bread and butter and the roast beef, but it appears that it has had

fits for some time past, and when my daughter told me I recommended her

to get mealworms.


Thanking you in anticipation for your reply and apologising for the trouble

I am giving. F. MOERSCHELL.


The folloioing reply has been sent to Mr. Moerschell :—


The Hill Mynahs or Grackles require slightly different treatment from the

more Starling-like Mynahs, and you do not say which group yours belongs to: but

there is little doubt that the beef is chiefly to blame for the bird’s condition.


None of the Mynahs should have much meat and the Hill-Mynahs are

(I am satisfied) better without any. My Starling-like Mynahs had a little,

minced fine, occasionally—perhaps once a fortnight : they delighted in cock¬

roaches of which they would eat any amount, and I am sure they were the better

for them : earthworms were also occasionally given and newly-born mice when

obtainable.


The staple food consisted of Trower’s Cekto mixed with double its bulk of

bread-crumbs and either slightly damped with water or with potato crushed

through a masher; to this a little hard-boiled egg or preserved egg-flake was

added. Fruit of course was given daily.


The fits are due to overheated blood rushing to the head, and the quickest

remedy is to plunge the bird’s head into cold water for a second ; but an aperient

should be given, the best in my opinion is two drops of castor oil which can

either be dropped into the back of the bird’s mouth, or be administered by

dipping a good-sized camel’s-hair brush into the oil and inserting it in the open

mouth. A. G. Butler.



BULLFINCHES AND MANNIKINS.


SIR, - What do Bullfinches eat ? The R.S.P.C.A. says they only eat buds

that contain insects. This has not been my experience.


A lady somewhere stated that hers ate invisible insects. I remember this

but cannot trace it at the moment. How did she know it ? A Bullfinch I have

now eats mealworms and wireworms before the other birds can get at them. Is

not this unusual ? Books do not seem to refer to their taking animal food.


A Magpie Mannikin I bred last year has, during the winter, moulted

practically all its white feathers and replaced them with black. Is this often

done? H. A. SOAMES.



