Parrots, macaws, and cockatoos thrive best on a pole with a stand at the bottom for sand, as their tail and wing feathers generally become ragged when they are kept in a cage. Some grey parrots and blue macaws are very apt to pull out their breast feathers; but this is the result of a disease brought on by eating too much meat. The same cause also brings on gout in the feet, and other complaints. All the parrot tribe are hard-beaked birds, and consequently not carnivorous: their food in their native country is grain and fruit, and their habits in this respect should always be kept in view in feeding them; for though birds in confinement are in an unnatural state, and require more indulgences than they would need if wild in the woods, yet they should never have food given to them which their organs are quite unfitted to digest. Parrots and other similar birds should therefore be fed as much as possible on ripe fruit, boiled wheat or Indian corn, and milk; or, if these articles be not attainable, bread or captain's biscuit soaked in boiling water, with enough milk added to enable the bird to drink, will be found the best substitute. Bird-fanciers use generally bread made without salt, and very well baked, crumbled into water and then slightly squeezed; but the birds get very thin if kept for a long time only on this diet, and require a little milk, though that is a food they certainly never can have in their natural state. Bechstein says that they will get fat on the seed of the safflower (Cárthamus tinctòrius), and indeed these seeds are called by the French graines de perroquets. Though the parrot tribe are not carnivorous, they are all very fond of a bone to pick; and I believe that they may be indulged with one occasionally, provided there is no fat and very little meat on it. Parrots should be supplied every day with clean water to wash, and their feet should be frequently examined and cleaned from any dirt that may be adhering to them.
Should you take a fancy to a pet monkey, most of the common kinds are kept chained to a pole on a stand, and fed like parrots; but marmozets, which are pretty little creatures, are very tender, and are generally kept in a cage like squirrels. They will eat animal food, and one that was at liberty is said to have snatched a gold fish out of the water, and devoured it. The most interesting circumstance relating to them is, however, their fondness for their young, which is nursed by both the male and female like a baby.
Gold and silver fish are very ornamental and suitable objects to keep in a lady's morning room. It is generally supposed that they are quite incapable of affection; but some that we have certainly knew me again when I came back after having been out of town; and one, which I call Goldy, and which we have had four or five years, will come and nibble my finger when I put it near him, or swim after a feather when I draw it gently along the surface of the water.
It is, however, very difficult to keep gold fish long in a room, particularly in a glass globe. When it is wished to do so, only two or three should be in one globe, and the water should be changed every day in winter, and twice a day in summer; the fish having no food but the animalcula which they find in the water, which should always be from a pond or river, as spring water is not only too cold, but often contains some mineral substance which is likely to prove injurious. When several fish are kept in a small space, the water should either be kept continually changing by a fountain, or in some other mode; or the fish should be fed with some farinaceous substance, but never with baker's bread, as it is decidedly injurious to them. I am told that the dealers in gold fish, who always keep a great number together in darkness, in a large tub or tank, feed them twice a day with boiled grits; other persons recommend crushed barley or oats: in France they use a kind of paste made of maize or Indian corn; and in America, I am told, they prefer brewer's grains, or a paste made of bran and flour. Whenever farinaceous food of any kind is used, it should be given in small quantities, and be quite fresh; the vessel in which the fish are kept being always cleaned thoroughly every day, to prevent the possibility of any of the food in a sour state remaining in it.
Though gold and silver fish certainly look best in a glass globe, I doubt whether they live so long in one as they will do in an opaque vessel. When I kept my fish in a large oblong china vase, I lost only one in five years; but in a glass globe I lost seven in about six months. I tried various modes of treatment, such as putting gravel in the water, and giving the fish duck-weed and pond-weed to shelter them from the sun; but I had still the mortification to see my fish die, and generally without any apparent cause. The first symptom was the fish appearing languid and unwilling to move; but in a few hours, it began to swim on one side, and when turned on the other side it instantly resumed its former position; shortly after, the tail drooped down, so as to throw the body into an angular position, and in the course of a few hours the poor fish was dead. It is true that the year in which these experiments were tried appears to have been decidedly unfavourable for gold fish, as a great many died, even in ponds, where they are generally much more healthy than when kept in rooms. In one instance, especially, nearly twenty died in the marble basin of a fountain, where fish had been kept for years with an average of not more than two or three deaths in a year. In many cases, the cause of death in gold fish is evidently a plant nearly allied to the green scum formed on stagnant water. This plant, which is called Achyla prolífera, consists principally of threads so exceedingly fine as to be imperceptible to the naked eye, but which take root in the body of the fish, as the mistletoe grows on the apple tree, and in time produce a soft downy substance like mould, that first appears on the gills and tail, but gradually covers the whole body of the fish. When this extraordinary disease, if it may be so called, is discovered in its first stages, it may be stopped by sprinkling salt on the back and sides of the fish; but the application appears to cause intense pain, as the fish, as soon as it feels the salt, darts from one side to the other of the vessel that contains it, and appears to be writhing with agony. This, however, soon goes off, and the fish appears quite restored, seldom requiring a second application.
The best way of keeping gold and silver fish is certainly in a pond in the garden; particularly if the situation be warm and exposed to the sun. It is necessary, however, if the pond be shallow, and the water clear, to have two or three bundles of faggots thrown into it, that the fish may find shade, when they wish it. Faggots are also very useful when it is wished to breed gold fish; as they afford both warmth and shelter, without which gold fish never produce young. When first hatched the gold fish is nearly black, but it gradually becomes streaked with gold or silver; the metallic hue increasing every year, till the black finally disappears.
As you are fond of having flowers in your room, and as your present garden is so far from your house, you will perhaps be glad to know how to preserve cut flowers as long as possible. The most simple rules are, not to put too many flowers in a glass, to change the water every morning, and to remove every decayed leaf as soon as it appears, cutting off the end of the stems occasionally, as soon as they show any symptoms of decay. A more efficacious way, however, is to put nitrate of soda or nitrate of potash (saltpetre) in powder into the water; as about as much as can be easily taken up between the forefinger and the thumb, put into the glass every time the water is changed, will preserve cut flowers in all their beauty for above a fortnight. Camphor in powder has nearly the same effect.
The drawingroom should be fitted up with more elegance than any other room in the house. The walls may be panelled, and the panels filled in with fluted silk, with a gilt moulding round them; or the walls may be covered with flock or satin paper, with a gilt moulding under the cornice. In either case the cornice should be rich; and there should be bosses on the ceiling to indicate the place for the chandeliers, if you have any. A slight degree of conformity between the style of the furniture and that of the house is, I think, advisable; but, as your house appears to have had additions made to it in different reigns, almost any style of furniture that suits your own taste may be adopted without incongruity. There should be several large looking-glasses, two or more chandeliers; and against the walls there should be a few choice cabinet pictures, which should be characterised by delicacy and beauty rather than force. A Claude or two, some of Guido's exquisite female heads, and one of Raphael's Madonnas, would be very suitable, or modern paintings of first-rate artists; but I think no picture should be admitted unless its subject is elegant as well as pleasing. There should be large mirrors in panels, or in richly gilt frames, and a very handsome white marble chimney-piece, as I see there is but one indicated in the plan, with a very rich-looking steel grate, made low to show an ornamented back. I suppose the windows near the fireplace are false ones, as otherwise there would be a cross light; the three windows opening on the terrace are, however, quite sufficient to give light to the room; and that at the south end I should like to see opening into a conservatory. I scarcely know what colour to recommend for the hangings of the walls. Full-toned colours lessen the size of a room, and light colours enlarge it. Crimson is very becoming to female beauty, and it has besides the advantage of being in perfect keeping with the character of a drawingroom in an old mansion. The curtains should be silk or silk damask, and made with either a piped valance or very deep gold fringe; and the inner muslin curtains should have a rich border, and be trimmed with either lace, or with silk fringe of the same colour as the outer curtains. The chairs should correspond, and should have a great deal of gilding about them. The carpet should be Wilton, and made in one piece, of a pattern to fit the room; and this pattern should consist chiefly of flowers. There should be several sofas and ottomans and ornamental footstools, an excellent piano, and a harp, ornamental screens to correspond with the style of the curtains; consoles with richly gilt frames, and looking-glass slabs and brackets for ornamental china; candelabra for lights; an elegant ormolu clock; and in short, a variety of articles that will suggest themselves; only take care not to crowd the room too much, lest you should give it the air of an upholsterer's warehouse rather than a drawingroom.
The dining-room should be characterised by the massive appearance of its furniture, and the richness of its hangings. The curtains may be of maroon-coloured cloth, or moreen, trimmed with gold. The carpet should be Turkey or Axminster, and need not quite cover the room, but may leave a part to be rubbed bright or painted. You should have a large handsome chimney-piece, and a large grate, so contrived with a plate at the bottom, as to contain wood as well as coal. Some persons advise having no light in a dining-room except from one large chandelier hung just over the dinner-table, but sufficiently high above it to cast no shade; while others recommend side lights to show the pictures, if there should be any, on the walls. If there are, they may be of quite a different character from those in the drawingroom, and of more solemn and serious subjects, though still not painful ones; and they may include pictures by the Dutch masters, and those by English artists in the domestic style. Your dining-room is very conveniently placed in being so near the kitchen; and it is also convenient to have folding-doors opening into both the dining-room and the drawingroom, placed exactly opposite each other. The passage or vestibule between them is useful in keeping out sounds from the drawingroom, and also the smell of dinner; and it may easily be made ornamental by filling the end next the window with greenhouse plants in flower. These will also have a good effect from the hall; and in addition to them, the vestibule may contain a bust or some choice piece of sculpture, before which may be placed a lamp. The sideboard in the dining-room may be placed in the recess left for it.
I have now given you all the advice that I think you will find requisite; for, after all, you must remember that, notwithstanding any thing I may have said, the furniture and decorations of the rooms must depend principally on your own taste; I can do no more than point out what kind of style is suitable to the different rooms, and you must do the rest.