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careful not to remove too much — in fact, nothing beyond the 

 overgrowth — or permanent injury may be caused to the beak 

 or feet of the bird operated upon. During the operation, the 

 bird should be held gently but firmly ; as, by an involuntary 

 and sudden motion on its part, a claw might be entirely 

 destroyed before the operator could prevent it. 

 Cold. — See Catarrh. 



Constipation. — When a bird is observed to be straining 

 frequently, and fails in its attempts to void its excrement, 

 this is a sign of the complaint, or of a bad form of costive- 

 ness, which should be attended to without delay. Catch the 

 bird, and administer three or four drops of castor oil. This 

 should be done by pressing open the bird's mouth and 

 dropping the oil into the gullet by means of a knitting- 

 needle, which had better be warmed first, to cause the oil to 

 flow with greater freedom, and to prevent too large a dose 

 being given. If this does not act speedily, give a clyster of 

 raw linseed oil — the same means being used at the proper 

 part of the bird. Food which has a tendency to relieve the 

 bowels should be given ; green food, such as lettuce and 

 chickweed, to birds that feed on it, and spiders and meal- 

 worms to insect-devouring birds. 



Consumption. — See Phthisis. 



Corpulence. — Some birds that are well cared for, and 

 pampered with dainties, get too fat, and consequently become 

 inert and lazy. In such cases, plain diet should be resorted 

 to, and a little cathartic medicine, such as the addition of a 

 few senna leaves to their ordinary drinking-water, or a few 

 grains of magnesia, or Epsom salts, according to the size and 

 variety of birds. All those birds which partake of vegetable 

 food should be supplied with a few leaves of the dandelion 

 (which should be previously soaked in water, and well rinsed 

 off, especially in frosty weather, as it is death to birds to 

 feed them with dandelion when it has the effects of frost 

 upon it), or a little watercress when procurable. Those birds 

 which are insectivorous, and which do not partake of green 

 food, should be supplied with other remedies, vide instruc- 

 tions under the different headings in treating on cage 

 birds. 



Cramp. — This is a disease from which many cage birds 

 suffer. It generally attacks the limbs, but sometimes the 



