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it fits on to the sides ; around the doer ; at the ends of the perches, 

 or even under the sand drawer. I have seen cages so neglected that 

 every one of these hiding places had its colony of red mite. Anyway, 

 whatever place may he chosen, they keep in hiding as long as day- 

 light lasts, stirring from it only on the advent of night, and for no 

 other purpose than feeding on the life-blood of their unfortunate 

 victims. They do not deposit their ova about the bird's body, as do 

 other still more objectionable parasites, but they, nevertheless, in- 

 crease far too quickly in their own dark lairs. There they can be 

 destroyed in their hundreds by the simple method of sealing up all 

 crevices with any hard fat which will not melt in ordinary summer 

 heat. Armed with a piece of mutton fat or such like, and an old 

 knife, the canary keeper is able to effect immense execution in places 

 where boiling water, insect powder, quassia decoction, and such 

 remedies would be difficult of application. Any kind of sticky or 

 fatty substance, even beeswax, or soap, would answer the purpose, 

 but I have recommended animal fat, as, if the birds peck at it, it can 

 at least do them no harm. When it is once understood that, except 

 in the case of sickly or diseased birds, the red mites invariably retreat 

 to their hiding places long before daylight, and remain so ensconced 

 until darkness, the simplicity of freeing one's cages and portable 

 aviaries from the pest becomes immediately apparent. When only a 

 few birds are kept, each cage should be duplicated, and if at cleaning 

 time each bird is put into a fresh clean cage, his own can easily be exam- 

 ined. The presence of red mite will always be marked by a fine white 

 ■deposit about the place in which they are secreted, and if this be 

 found, the infested cage should be paraffined, or otherwise disinfected 

 — the simple application of boiling water is not sufficient to destroy 

 the ova — and kept empty for four or five weeks, being in the mean- 

 while hung in some place other than the bird room. At the end of 

 that time all the undesirable tenants will have teen starved to 

 •death, if not previously killed by whatever insecticide may have 

 been used. It should scarcely be necessary to observe that in such 

 cases the clean cages must not be hung in the same place as were the 

 dirty ones, or the few parasites which will be pretty certain to be in 

 some handy crevice — round the nail for instance — will scon accom- 

 modate themselves to the new abode, and matters will be as bad as 

 ever. I had almost forgotten to mention that the bird must not be 



