ORDER PASSERES. 293 



which will be on the thirteenth day of the female''s hatching, 

 the fine and sifted sand, which ought to have been put at the 

 bottom of their cage on their first entrance, must be changed. 

 This sand is useful, because if the female lays, as she will do 

 sometimes, at the bottom of the cage, the egg is not injured ; 

 and also, as she often happens, in rising too quickly from the 

 nest, to carry off the new-born young with her, they, falling 

 on the fine sand, are not wounded. Having changed the 

 sand, the perches must be cleaned, the drawer filled with 

 fresh grain, the old being removed, and fresh water put into 

 their trough, which must be well cleaned first. All this 

 should be done at this time, that the birds may not be tor- 

 mented during the first days after the birth of the young. 

 They should also have a little biscuit, or something of the 

 sort, pretty hard, to prevent them from eating too much. 

 While this aliment lasts, nothing else is given to them. It 

 may be succeeded by a kind of paste, composed of hard egg^ 

 white and yolk, hashed very small, with a morsel of simnel ; 

 the whole pressed with the hand, and put into one small 

 saucer, and in another some rapeseed, steeped in water, or 

 rather on which boiling water has been poured, to remove its 

 roughness. Sugared biscuit, say the connoisseurs, ought to 

 be rejected, as too heating, and either making the eggs 

 unfruitful or the young feeble and delicate. 



Many other precepts regarding food and treatment, are 

 laid down by authors, but we omit their notice, in the fear of 

 becoming tedious. It may be observed, that many of them 

 should not be literally followed, being more prejudicial than 

 useful to the health of our little prisoners. Too much care 

 and attention are just as bad as negligence. A diet, properly 

 regulated, of rapeseed and millet ; water, once or twice a-day, 

 in summer, and from one day to another, in winter ; some 

 green plant, from time to time ; pounded oats : and, above all, 

 careful cleanliness, will be found to suit them best. 



