48 
HINTS ON CAGE-BIRDS. 
witli as little delay as possible and placed where they can do no 
harm to themselves or others. 
Another point bearing upon the preventive sido of the health 
question is one which becomes natural to the aviculturist of 
experience, although he may sometimes have a relapse when he 
acquires a very rare or expensive bird. This point is, not to be over 
anxious, not to imagine evil where none exists, not to look at a bird 
and wonder whether it is as active and its eye as bright as it was 
yesterday. My friends, do not you know that half the invalids in 
civilised countries are only the victims of their imaginings ? Have 
you never read of the criminal who, for scientific purposes, was 
handed over to the medical profession ostensibly to be bled to death; 
and after he had been blindfolded, water was trickled slowly over 
his arm, so that he imagined that his life was being drained away, 
and thus he died of fright alone? It is quite possible. Even 
when disease exists, treatment for that disease sometimes hastens 
death ; especially this is the case when the remedies given are un- 
necessarily heroic ; but, in the case of imaginary diseases, ascertain 
heroic treatment is sometimes useful. I have pointed out that 
human beings may imagine themselves into their graves, and it is 
certain that the absence of any desire to live is not an unknown 
cause of death; it has even been stated (though I cannot remember 
now where 1 read the statement) that men of certain races can 
die voluntarily. Whether the latter be true or not, I believe that 
birds, when much alarmed or dispirited, can determine to die, and 
unless roused, will soon succumb to this determination. 
On one occasion I had a Goldfinch which became dispirited. 
Whether it resented confinement in a small aviary, disliked its com- 
panions, ox* was dissatisfied with its food, I don’t know, but it 
persistently went into the corner, and stood with its face to the 
wall. This bird had been active and jubilant enough in the morn- 
ing, when tho sun was shining, and I did not believe it had any- 
thing the matter with it, so I thought I would give it something 
to grumble at. I got a syringe, and squirted cold water over it 
until it was quite wet, and in two seconds it was out of the corner 
and up on a perch squeezing the water out of its feathers. It lived 
to be quite an old stager. On another occasion I turned a Siskin, 
which I had kept as a pet in a canary cage for over a year, into 
one of my bird-room aviaries. It was horribly frightened, flew 
madly about for a minute, then went into a corner and stood with 
its face to the wall. I picked it up, restored it to its cage, and it 
returned to its perch. I gave that bird to a friend, and it lived on 
for about two years in captivity. 
To physic a bird when it is perfectly healthy can hardly be con- 
ducive to its wellbeing, and to ovexdose a sick bixd is, often, to kill 
it. Eor this l’eason I rarely give medicine to any of my own birds, 
and only recommend moderate treatment for those of others. A 
correspondent who had a sick Linnet, informed me that he had 
given it three drops of castor oil, and the bird had died. I was not 
