WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
of destroying the feather in parrots. There is a great 
variety of food generally given to parrots, and most of 
them thrive and do well upon hemp and canary-seed, 
boiled Indian corn, scalded bread or biscuit, fruit, nuts, 
and vegetable substances ; sometimes (but rarely) a little 
raw meat (not fat) is good for them. 
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 
THE FALLACY OF THE SUPPOSED BLINDING OF BIRDS. 
One of the oldest fallacies is the notion that in order to 
induce a wild caught bird to sing, it was a practice of the 
cruel bird-fanciers to put out the eyes of the birds with 
red-hot needles. 
Under these circumstances I deny that any wild caught 
bird, say the nightingale or robin, would live after such 
a cruel operation. 
It is sometimes difficult to induce these birds when first 
captured to take food, and if deprived of their sight it is 
positively certain they would be starved to death. I 
have no doubt the origin of the story is traceable to an 
old book translated from the German describing the 
treatment of fresh-caught nightingales. The book to 
which I refer must have been published more than a 
hundred years ago. In it is given a description of the 
caging of nightingales. When newly caught they are put 
singly into a square cage of about 10 in., with wire 
front only ; over the wire front is fixed a thin white blind 
to prevent the bird being alarmed on seeing any one 
moving about. 
In the translation referred to was the odd statement 
that when the bird was put into the cage he must be 
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