96 
same mixed up into a paste with hard-boiled yolk of eg'g 
and water, is excellent for the young ones : care should be 
taken never to give this when sour, or at all musty. Stale 
sponge cake, rubbed down to powder, or made into a paste, 
with a few drops of sherry wine, is good when your birds, 
from sickness, or other causes, are weak and debilitated. 
mSEi^SES. 
Although the diseases to which the canary is liable are 
much the same as those which attack other species in con- 
finement, yet it is so important and universally admired a 
song-bird, that we think it well to give specific directions for 
its treatment under all the ills that canary flesh is heir to. 
We will take the diseases in the order in which they are 
set down by Bechstein, and add to the information given by 
him, some which our own experience and reading have 
enabled us to acquire : — 1st, Miipture, or surfeit, a kind of 
indigestion, causing inflammation of the intestines, to which 
young birds are more especially subject ; the symptoms are, 
a swelling of the body, which, on blowing up the feathers, 
looks semi-transparent, and full of red veins; at the lower 
part iire black tui'gid lumps, as though the intestines had 
fallen there in a knotted state ; the cause of this is, gene- 
rally, an over-abundance of nutrition, or bad or stale food 
or water; the remedy, if any there be, a spare diet, with a 
little alum or salt in the drink ; groats and oatmeal are good 
in this case : if the bowels should be much relaxed, give 
bruised hemp and maw seed, with a little stale sponge cake 
soaked in sherry wine. Sometimes the feathers of the bird 
come ofl*, then rub the bare parts with fresh lard, or oil of 
almonds. 2nd. Egg Mupture, consists of an obstruction of 
the passage by which the eggs are ejected : sufl'ering from 
this disease, which in the end frequently proves fatal, the 
bird is said to be egg-bound ; she often fancies that she has 
laid, and broods upon an empty nest : a few drops of salad 
oil applied to the vent, and a warm bath, are the best 
remedies ; you must be very careful in handling the bird, 
or you may break the confined egg, a catastrophe which 
would most likely cause immediate death. When you have 
applied the remedies, do not let her loose, but place her 
gently upon the nest, and it is likely she will tlien be able to 
