148 
CAGE AND SINGING BIRD3. 
once ; on the seed days a little saffron steeped in the water : 
should the difficulty of shedding the feathers be very great, 
give captains' biscuit, soaked and made hot with cayenne, 
about three times a week, and put some stick liquorice in 
the water. If the moult goes on quite favourably, and the 
bird op])oars cheerful, but little alteration from the common 
diet need be made; warmth is the grand requisite. 
Surfeit. — This is usually the effect of stale food, or im« 
pure water, want of gravel, or sand, or some neglect of 
cleanliness; it shows itself in eruptions about the head, 
which discharge an acrid humour, which, if not washed off, 
will make the parts over which it flows quite bare of feathers. 
A solution of common salt in spring water is the best appli- 
cation, wiping the parts perfectly dry after it, and anointing 
them with palm oil. The diet should be scalded bread and 
ground rice mixed with milk, in which has been boiled a 
little stick liquorice. In this case, also, warmth is the one 
thing needful. 
Tumours. — Fleshy excrescences so-called sometimes ap- 
pear without any assignable cause ; they may be removed 
when they have attained a considerable size, by passing a 
piece of strong silk round them close down to their junction 
with the part to which they are attached ; tie the silk so 
that you can gradually tighten it ; this do, and the tumour 
will eventually wither up, and drop off, without giving much 
pain to the bird. 
Vermin. — The best remedy is the white precipitate lotion, 
recommended for canaries, used with all due caution, on ac- 
count of its poisonous nature. 
THE END. 
