78 



CANARY BIRDS. 



come rancid, and exhale a bad odour. Euclayptus oil takes 

 longer to become rancid than other oils. When young birds 

 in the nests become infested with bird-lice, their growth will 

 be considerably stunted, nor will they thrive in a general 

 sense. Another Hartz-cage with a precisely similar nesting bas- 

 ket should then be substituted ; the basket should be quilted 

 with linen, some building-materials (but not such as have 

 already been used) be firmly and smoothly pressed into it, 

 and powdered over with the best insect-powder ; the young 

 birds then cautiously lifted out of the old nest and placed 

 into the new, then remove the old nest and burn all the old 

 nesting-materials ; and the basket and cage, etc., must be 

 scalded out with boiling w 7 ater. Before hanging the new 

 nest with the young in their former place, however, the 

 surface of the wall must either be washed with hot water 

 and then dried, or, better still, it will be thinly covered with 

 rape or linseed-oil, and insect-powder blown over it. The 

 brushing with tincture of insect-pow T der is also effective. 



Mice. — Even in the choice of the room destined for the 

 birds, care should be taken that no rats or mice, not to 

 mention larger beasts of prey, can gain access to it; all 

 holes, and the larger crevices, should be filled up with a 

 mixture of pointed and finely pounded fragments of glass, 

 and sand, which is free from dust ; small pieces of brick are 

 then inserted, and the whole will be carefully covered with 

 cement. Should mice get in despite these precautions, and 

 cause havoc among the food, eat up the nestlings, or do 

 other damage, the destroying them will be a very difficult 

 task ; poison cannot conveniently be employed because the 

 birds are too easily endangered by it, and as for traps, the 

 astute rodents will rarely venture into them after some of 

 their kind have been caught ; I know of no other expedient 

 in such a case, than to try to effect the destruction by means 

 of poisoned wheat, which should be put in some concealed 



