THE LINNET. 
One of the diseases to which, he is subject is “ sconring.” 
j This is the result of bad seed or want of water. To cure this 
yon must give him lettnce-seeds with his other food. If he 
does not get better, take -all the seed out of his box, and for a 
few days give him nothing but flax-seed. As soon as he gets 
a little better, give him a little bruised hemp or a little ground 
rice, and some saffron in his water. 
As before remarked, he is liable to surfeit from over feeding ; 
you may know this by the belly behig swollen and covered with 
red veins ; put a pinch of magnesia in his water. If that does 
not do him good, give him two drops of castor-oil, at the same 
time dieting him on bread and milk, on which some maw-seed 
has been sprinkled. If the surfeit arises from cold, put six 
drops of port or sherry wine in his water, and feed him for a 
day or two on two parts maw-seed and one part hemp-seed. 
Give him a few crumbs of stale pound-cake, and change the 
gravel at the bottom of his cage every morning, as the sharp 
grains the bird picks from among it are a great help to his 
digestion. In administering seed to birds, whether medici- 
nally or in the ordinary way, bear in mind their various pro- 
perties. Flax has an inclination to open the bowels, maw and 
hemp to stop relaxation, while canary and rape act simply as 
tonics. 
I have not hitherto said anything about the treatment of 
song-birds during the moulting period, and, in honest truth, my 
observation and experience of this matter has been of such a 
character as to cause me considerable perplexity as to how the 
subject should be dealt with. I consult Kidd, Hirst, Adams, 
De Berg, and Bechstein, and this is the substance of the advice 
they give : — 
“ All you have to do is to keep the birds quiet and free from 
draughts. As the moult will probably occur during the hottest 
months of the year, you need not muffle them up. Hang them 
in the sunshine as much as . possible ; give them hemp-seed, 
stale sponge-cake, and any nourishing food they seem to fancy. 
Let them constantly have a lump of sugar to peck, and throw 
into the water a little saffron or a piece of liquorice. * * # 
Should the moult prove very bad, give sponge-cake soaked 
in sherry wine, and a little of the wine may be blown over his 
feathers every day or two while he is moulting.” 
This advice may be followed by people who live in genial 
regions, but in so variable a climate as England I am sure it 
is not the best course. Besides, I certainly do not approve of 
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