130 TREATISE ON 



Keep them warm, dry, and very clean ; put dry 

 moss round the nest and on the bottom of the 

 cage ; for the cold wood, while they are so young, 

 is apt to give them the cramp. Feed them with 

 butcher-meat, very finely minced, but free from 

 fat, mixed with crums of loaf-bread rather old, 

 but sweet. The least sourness or bad yeast in the 

 bread will kill them. New bread is also detrimen- 

 tal. Add to the butcher-meat and bread some 

 bruised hempseed and a little of the yolk of an 

 egg very hard-boiled; mix the whole together with 

 water, so as to make a thick paste ; feed them with 

 this every two or tlii'ee hours, beginning as early 

 as possible in the morning, particularly at first, 

 giving them occasionally a spider or meal-maggot, 

 (the larva of tenehria inolitor,) which may be had 

 at meal-dealer or at baker shops. Nothing more 

 is necessary till the birds take the perch ; the nest 

 and moss must then be removed, and the bottom 

 of the cage sprinkled with fine dry earth from an 

 ant-hill, mixed with a little fine gravel, and a few 

 ant-eggs put on the gravel will be beneficial. The 

 mixture already mentioned must be put in a clean 

 flat dish on the bottom of the cage, and in another 

 dish a little pure water. Change both daily, as the 

 health of the birds depends on fresh food and wa- 



