WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
TREATMENT OF PARROTS. 
One of the commonest and most frequent maladies that 
we meet with in parrots is the loss of the feathers. No 
doubt, in many instances, this is the result of skin disease, 
produced by artificial feeding and want of exercise, to which 
something more may be added, viz. the want of occupation. 
It must be borne in mind that we have in the parrot a 
very highly- organized and intelligent creature to deal 
with. A bird that listens with such attentive watchfulness 
to every sound and imitates to so great a nicety that which 
it hears, with a memory which retains those sounds and 
which it repeats for years afterwards, must have also a tend- 
ency to acquire a habit of amusing itself, which it does in 
a very un23leasant way as regards its own appearance. It 
is quite certain that the bird may be loerfectly healthy, 
and in good condition in every respect except in its 
plumage, of which to such an extent will some jDarrots 
denude themselves, that the only vestige of feathers to be 
found upon them is on their heads, which may be in the 
most perfect and beautiful condition, sim^oly because they 
are beyond the reach of his bill. If the supposed disease 
of the skin prevents the feathers growing on the body of 
the bird, would not this same disease extend to the skin of 
the head ? Long experience has shown the writer that 
the want of amusement, proper food, and exercise jDroduce 
these unpleasant and unsightly conditions. It may be 
reasonably su]3posed that want of proper food and exercise 
would be productive of diseases, and in many cases it is so, 
but more generally the want of amusement is the chief 
cause of a bird biting off his feathers. May not the habit, 
in the human sjDecies, of biting the finger-nails be brought 
on through the want of employment, and not considered as 
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