Natural History
P. F wishes to know if anything can be done for her little kitten? In the last few weeks her head has become quite bare, and she has lost a lot of hair from her shoulders; she is very lively, but does not drink her milk properly?—[She is probably kept indoors too much. Put a little sulphur in her milk about twice a week, and rub the places with vaseline. Let her run out where she can bite grass or plants if she wants to, and give her a little meat.]
Helen wishes to know if she ought to give her canary a bath in winter, and if so ought it to be cold or warm.—[Offer the bath, and let it do as it likes. The water should be about 60°.]
Lady Cara will be very glad to know what can be given to her parrot when it pulls its feathers off. The bird in question is now quite bare, and has been so for some time past, although well in health.—[We fear you have been giving him meat, or too much of rich nuts and biscuits. Parrots should have no meat, and plain food. Get him some scraped cuttle-fish bone, if he will eat it, and rub on a little vaseline, and on a bright day get him to bathe. Give him now and then a fig, and some ripe fruit, only begin very gradually.]
PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
The Editor has much pleasure in informing his Readers that, in response to repeated requests, there is now in preparation a new "Little Folks Painting Book," and that he is arranging for a Special Competition in connection with it, open to Children of all Ages, in which a large number of Prizes in Money, Books, and Medals will be offered for the best Coloured copies of it. This book, which will be called "The Little Folks Proverb Painting Book," and contain 96 pages of outline Illustrations and Verses, will be ready on the 25th of November; and the full Regulations of the Competition, with the list of the Prizes offered, will be printed in the January, 1885, Number of Little Folks.