Parrots are fond of canary and hemp seed, and should always have fresh water, in which a little cracker may be soaked. A little sweetened weak coffee and milk, with bread crumbed in it, may be given about once a week. Apples, pears, and oranges are healthy food, and should always have the seeds left in, as a parrot will eat those first, carefully peeling them, and devour the meat afterward. A slice of lemon and a small red pepper should be given occasionally, also English walnuts.
Cleanliness is essential to the health of a parrot, and as it will not bathe itself like most other birds, it should occasionally be stood in a pan containing an inch or two of tepid water, and its back sprinkled gently. The bird will scream and rebel, but will feel better after it.
It should be left in its bath for a few moments only (as it easily gets chilled), and then placed on its perch, where it can not feel any wind, to dry and plume itself. During a warm summer shower it is well to stand the cage out-of-doors for a short time. The parrot will usually spread its wings to receive the drops, and scream with delight, as that is its natural way of bathing. Parrots have very tender feet, and they often suffer if their claws are not kept perfectly clean. The perch should on this account be wiped dry every day. Meat, or anything greasy, is harmful to a parrot, and parsley will kill it, although lettuce, and especially green peas in the pod, are healthy diet.
Parrots are almost always savage to strangers, but so affectionate to the person who tends them that they fully repay for the care bestowed upon them.
PENCIL DRAWING, No. 2.
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Simple as it may seem to draw _leaves_, there must be care, and patience, and faithful effort. After a while, the young student who _succeeds_ will go on to _flower_ drawing, which is more difficult, but very delightful, and will be ill.u.s.trated by-and-by.
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At present we must try _easy leaves_. I make a few ill.u.s.trations, enough to begin with. Nos. 1, 2, and 3 are fuchsia leaves; No. 4, oxalis. These may be drawn again and again. A whole page of fuchsia leaves of different sizes is very pretty, and so of any leaf. By a skillful hand they may be arranged with artistic grace.
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Attention to a few points will give a precision and interest to the drawing. Let the drawing be _lightly_ rather than heavily done. Learn to draw the _double lines_ of _stems_ and _veins_ with great correctness.
Make a darker line on the under edge of leaves, and on one side of the stems. By turning the leaf on the wrong side the veins can be distinctly seen, and easily drawn. Do not be discouraged, but _persevere_. Begin to-morrow, or to-day: these beginnings may help you to become a skillful sketcher, and will give to you a delightful occupation that will grow dearer to your heart every day of your life.
[Ill.u.s.tration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]
This number of HARPER"S YOUNG PEOPLE completes the thirteen issues promised to subscribers to HARPER"S WEEKLY for 1880, and is therefore the last number to be sent out with that paper. Any one of our little friends who may thus be deprived of a weekly visit from HARPER"S YOUNG PEOPLE, and who wishes to continue acquaintance with us, may receive the remaining thirty-two numbers of our first volume, which will conclude with the number dated October 26, 1880, by sending One Dollar to the publishers, who will, on receipt of that amount, forward these numbers weekly, postage free, to any address in the United States or Canada.
Those who wish the back numbers, as well as the remainder of the volume, should send One Dollar and Fifty Cents, the price of a year"s subscription. The publishers renew their a.s.surance that they will make every effort to please their young patrons by providing weekly an attractive and instructive variety of ill.u.s.trated reading.
LOCKPORT, ILLINOIS.
I saw in YOUNG PEOPLE a letter from Edwin A. H., telling about his cabinet. Although I have been collecting only three years I have quite a cabinet. It contains a sea-cow, which measures fourteen inches from the tip of its tail to the nose. It is larger than any I have ever seen either in Chicago, New York, or Canada. That and a sea-horse came from Cuba. I have also some fine specimens of different corals and sponges; a box of agates and other stones from Africa; some beautiful specimens of quartz from the Rocky Mountains; a specimen from the Matanzas Cave in Cuba; a collection of Indian arrow-heads; a variety of petrifactions, among them a very large, perfect trilobite; a few very old coins, four of which, I think, are from Pompeii; a collection of foreign stamps; sh.e.l.ls from California, Cuba, and other places; and other things I have no room to mention. Can any one tell me how I can obtain some really good specimens of minerals? And is the whale that arrived at the New York Aquarium last summer alive yet?
L. H. N.
Are any correspondents informed about the health and present condition of the whale?
TALLAHa.s.sEE, FLORIDA.
I write to tell you about my collection of minerals. I am now ten years old. I commenced to collect when I was nine. My minerals are very fine, and I took the three-dollar premium for them at the fair.
WILLIAM L. BETTON.
CINCINNATI, OHIO.
I am a little girl thirteen years old. I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but I am spending the winter in Cincinnati. I take YOUNG PEOPLE, and like it very much. I am collecting curiosities, but I have no Proteus.
GRACE D. HALL.
MACON, GEORGIA.
I will write and tell you what a warm winter we have had. There were strawberries and peach blossoms in January, and now we have many kinds of flowers blooming in the gardens. I am writing St.
Valentine"s Day, and I and my two sisters, Bessie and Kate, have had several pretty valentines.
LAURA C. PARMELEE (9 years).
"BAY CLIFF," LONG ISLAND.
I am a little boy ten years old, and live by the water. I have a nice little row-boat named _Broadbill_, with patent oars. I have a Shetland pony named f.a.n.n.y. She is about three feet high, and is very kind and gentle, and I can ride or drive her. My guinea-pig is also a pet. I feed it cabbage leaves, carrots, boiled potatoes, and lettuce.
E. T. I.
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.
My most cunning pet is a guinea-pig named Tip, who creeps under my arm and goes to sleep. I put cabbage and celery in a train of cars and run across the floor; Tip gallops after and steals the leaves, stops to munch them, and then races for more.
ARTHUR A. CRANDELL.
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.
I have had experience with guinea-pigs, and I thought I would tell Mark Francis what mine eat. They like all kinds of green vegetables, such as lettuce and cabbage, but they like gra.s.s better than anything else; I can not give them enough. The only cooked food they like is Graham bread and oatmeal mush. Sometimes they eat oats and apples. My auntie has kept them for fifteen years, and she never gave them any water. She says if they want water, they are sick. They are always very sensitive to the cold.
GRACE B. PETERSON.
NEW YORK CITY.