ORDER PASSERES. 26? 



their bills full, like the canaries, and must be kept clean and 

 warm. To render them more familiar, they are fed with the 

 hand, and chirped to. When they can feed alone, the rape- 

 seed is given to them entire, but softened in water, so that 

 they can break it more easily. Their aliment must also be 

 varied with millet, radish, cabbage, lettuce seeds, and plan- 

 tain, and sometimes with bruised melon seeds, and from time 

 to time with barberries, marchpane, and anagallis. Hemp- 

 seed should be given to them very sparingly, because it 

 fattens them too much, and they either die or cease to sing. 

 Many persons give them nothing but rapeseed, but the same 

 inconvenience results from this. The more their food is 

 varied, the fewer maladies they will have. A small piece 

 of plaster or chalk should also be put into their cage to 

 prevent constipation, to which they are subject. They are 

 also subject to a curious disease, which the French call 

 subtile, and for which the chalk or plaster is a remedy. This 

 disease is indicated by their melancholy, their silence, and 

 their stiff and bristling feathers. When it has made some 

 progress, their bills become hard, the veins are thick and 

 red, the breast is swelled, the feet are also swelled and callous, 

 and they can scarcely sustain themselves upright. Linnets 

 are subject to epilepsy, for which chalk is also prescribed, 

 and a disease called the buttom, which is a small tumour, and 

 generally considered incurable. It is recommended, however, 

 to pierce it quickly, and staunch the wound with wine. 

 Besides all these complaints, which are for the most part the 

 result of captivity, they also suffer from the asthma, the symp- 

 tom of which is, striking angrily with their bills. A little 

 oxymel should then be put in their water, and their food 

 changed for some days, giving them some tender wild 

 endive, pounded with barberries, or cabbage, if this ma- 

 lady attack them during winter. Nothing is better to keep 

 them cheerful and in good health, than to give them occa- 



