WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



of destroying the feather in parrots. There is a great 

 variety of food generally given to parrots, and most of 

 them thrive and do well upon hemp and canary-seed, 

 boiled Indian corn, scalded bread or biscuit, fruit, nuts, 

 and vegetable substances ; sometimes (but rarely) a little 

 raw meat (not fat) is good for them. 



CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 

 THE FALLACY OF THE SUPPOSED BLINDING OF BIRDS. 



One of the oldest fallacies is the notion that in order to 

 induce a wild caught bird to sing, it was a practice of the 

 cruel bird-fanciers to put out the eyes of the birds with 

 red-hot needles. 



Under these circumstances I deny that any wild caught 

 bird, say the nightingale or robin, would live after such 

 a cruel operation. 



It is sometimes difficult to induce these birds when first 

 captured to take food, and if deprived of their sight it is 

 positively certain they would be starved to death. I 

 have no doubt the origin of the story is traceable to an 

 old book translated from the German describing the 

 treatment of fresh-caught nightingales. The book to 

 which I refer must have been published more than a 

 hundred years ago. In it is given a description of the 

 caging of nightingales. When newly caught they are put 

 singly into a square cage of about 10 in., with wire 

 front only ; over the wire front is fixed a thin white blind 

 to prevent the bird being alarmed on seeing any one 

 moving about. 



In the translation referred to was the odd statement 

 that when the bird was put into the cage he must be 



326 



