CAGE BIRDS AND THEIR DISEASES. 419 
meanwhile adding water until the whole is loose and has a pleasant odor. 
It is very desirable to mix ant’s eggs in this when feeding it. 
Lark, Starling, Ete.—To larks, starlings, and the yellow-hammer 
species, give wheat, oats, canary seed, green food, some earth-worms, meal- 
worms and ant’s eggs. Finely-chopped cabbage, mixed with poppy seed, is 
especially needed by all of the lark species; and the diet given just above for 
nightingales and robins is, generally speaking, also good. 
The Bullfinch and Linnet Families,—For bullfinches, linnets, chaf- 
finches, goldfinches, siskins, and all of the finch species, make a mixture of 
three parts of German rape seed, and one each of hemp seed, poppy seed 
and German millet. Hemp and poppy seed should be given with care, for 
they produce fat too readily when supplied in excess. Beside the above, 
give green food and fruits. 
Fancy and African Finches.—The chief food of these is white (not 
yellow) millet and canary seed; other articles being rape, flax and poppy 
seed, and a little green food. 
Fancy Chickens.—For these, make a mixed food of fruit, crumbs of 
bread, rice (boiled dry), yolks and shells of eggs, meats and other articles 
from the table, and ant’s eggs. Now and then give strawberries, black- 
berries, huckleberries, grapes and plums. 
Parrots.—Large purrots with strong beaks should have corn, oats, 
hemp seed, sunflower seed, millet, boiled rice, milk, bread, ant’s eggs, pota- 
toes, nuts, grapes, fruits, and small seeds in general. Salt in bits or crystals 
should be constantly within reach. Bitter almonds and parsley are poison- 
ous for these birds. It may be said, apart from the question of food, that 
care should be taken to particularly avoid draughts of air and direct rays of 
the sun. The bird should have a daily bath, or the whole body be sprinkled 
with water. A piece of wood for the parrot to bite is requisite to the proper 
growth of the beak, and should always be kept in the cage. 
DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 
From foregoing observations it will be inferred that the most common 
causes of sickness in cage birds are unnatural, improper and excessive food 
and drink, exposure to draughts and extremes of temperature, filth, and 
vermin. It follows that an avoidance of such influences will prevent the 
occurrence of many ills. In general, when a bird shows any evidence of 
sickness, the appropriate diet, as detailed above, should be rigidly observed. 
In the reader’s endeavor to discover what disease is affecting a bird, too 
much care can not be used to avoid an error which is entirely too common, 
namely, the forming of a conclusion upon an insufficient study of the patient’s 
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