SO THE PAK.ROT TRIBES. 
Scouring is caused either by a sudden change of diet or 
through taking sour fruit, or some other improper food. The 
symptoms are a drooping tail, a tenacious white excrement 
adhering to the feathers beneath the tail, and a general uneasi- 
ness exhibited by the bird. The hinder parts, which will be 
found to be much inflamed, should be anointed with palm-oil ; 
rice-biscuit, crumbled with the yolk of hard-boiled eggs, may be 
given with advantage; also boiled Indian corn, with which a 
chilli has been cut up. 
Diseased eyes may proceed from cold or improper food. 
When you see the rims red and inflamed, bathe them with 
a warm decoction of white hellebore. It is deadly poison, so 
be careful that the bird does not drink it. 
Consumption is a disease by no means uncommon with birds 
of the parrot tribe. The symptoms indicative of this disease 
are ruffled plumage, hollow eyes, loss of appetite for all sorts of 
food except green; gouty appearance of the lower extremities, 
and prominence of the breast-bone. Let him have plenty of 
the best food j)roper for him. Two days in each week feed him 
on nothing but fresh bread and milk, in which there is mixed 
some hemp-seed ; do not let the quantity of hemp-seed exceed 
a tea-spoonful for a day’s consumption ; along with the hemp- 
seed you may throw in a black peppercorn. Bechstein appears 
to think that water-cresses are a certain cure for consumption. 
He says, “ The birds should be fed with the best description of 
their appropriate food. In birds which will eat vegetables I 
have always found this, and especially water-cresses, the surest 
remedy against consumption and waste.” If treated according 
to the above directions as soon as the symptoms become mani- 
fest, the disease may be speedily eradicated. 
Some parrots (especially the lories) are subject to fits. They 
will tumble off their perches, and after a few convulsive strug- 
gles lie as if dead. When this happens, squirt the coldest 
water you can get over its head. If this does not revive the 
bird, take him by the legs and dip him three or four times into 
a pan of cold water. If he should still remain insensible, pluck 
out a tail feather and lay him on the warm stones. If after this 
he does not recover, you may make up your mind if you will 
have him buried or stuffed. Parrots subject to fits should occa- 
sionally have administered to them a little spirits of nitre. 
Pour half a dozen drops on to their bread and milk. There is 
nothing more likely to produce fits than costiveness. You 
may know when a bird is so afflicted by his constant and 
