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Little Birds

Buntings sing during the night if they are left in the cool open air, but they are better suited to fattening for fine tables than for singing. Chaffinches are prone to blindness, and their eyes swell at the beginning of August. Goldfinches love lettuce seeds, and you can catch them in gardens on seedy lettuce using two lime—twigs. But because such a daily fayre would be too expensive for them, they are usually fed with hemp—seed. The owsell is purged with a spider, which you must give it once a week, so that it doesn’t become too strong. The lark is purged with dry mortar, composed of lime and sand, to keep it from becoming too strong and fat. Small young birds are purged with the same dry mortar, by placing small lumps of it in their cages. The cuckoo lays its eggs in the nest of the bunting, otherwise know as verdaule. This bird is very simple—minded, I have previously let two go, which after a few days returned to their cage. To feed young goldfinches, it is necessary to crush almonds with very fine breadcrumbs, and lettuce seeds or hemp seeds. For linnets, some rapeseed.