DISEASES OF THE THRUSH. 
for plenty of clear water by always pitching his nest near a 
stream. 
The Thrush's Food. — The food of the thrush should mainly 
consist of barley-meal, made into stiif dough, with equal quan- 
tities of milk and water. Twice or three times a week you 
may mix with this a little lean beefsteak, finely shredded. If 
he is a strong healthy bird you need not scruple to give him a 
morsel of any lean meat, except pork, that you may have on | 
the dining-table, or a bit of boiled potato or carrot ; but the 
greatest delicacy with which you can supply him is a snail. 
When you put a snail in his cage, put also a smooth stone, 
and you will see him take the testaceous dainty in his beak, 
and bang it about on the stone till he has broken it to 
pieces. 
Diseases of the Thrush, axd how to Cure them. — Gene- 
rally, the thrush is a healthy bird ; still he is sometimes 
afflicted with illness, and chief among his ailments is constipa- 
tion. This will occur when he is fed for a long time on solid 
food alone. You cannot mistake this disease, as, when the 
bird has it, he is constantly drooping his tail, turning round 
and round on his perch, and exhibiting general uneasiness. 
Give him a large spider (one of the safest laxatives for a j 
bird), or make a large pill of barley-meal, kneaded with a mix- 
ture of saffron-water and linseed-oil. If this is ineffectual, the 
only remaining remedy is to dip the head of a large pin into 
linseed-oil, and insert it in the bird’s vent. This last, though 
generally effectual, is a delicate operation, and one which it I 
will be better to pay a fancier sixpence to perform than to do j 
it yourself. j 
Atrophy is another disease to which the thrush is subject. 
This malady manifests itself by a wasting of the bird’s body, : 
and a deplorable raggedness of his plumage. I have particu- | 
larly noticed that this is a disease most prevalent among town 
birds, and would seem to be nothing but a pining for the sight of 
green leaves and a mouthful of pure air. To town boys who have 
consumptive thrushes, I say, — let them have what they want ; 
send them for a month a few miles into the country, and, take ; 
my word, they will come back well and sprightly, and so full 1 
of joyous recollections as to take more than a month’s hard i 
singing to relate. 
■o 
