Hemp-Seed Bread and a few white Oats for he takes great delight to husk the Oats and when he begins to sing once in a week you may give him a hard Egg or shred him a little boiled Mutton or Veal or Sheeps-Heart You must observe in this Bird as in all others That you give no Salt Meat nor no Bread that is any thing Salt Concerning the Throstle and the several kinds THere be five sorts or kinds of Throstles according as I have observed The first sort and largest of them is your Mistle-Throstle which is far bigger and larger than of the other sorts and his Food is far different from all the other kinds and very few to be seen he is the beautifullest Bird of all the five but sings the least except he always breeds near where store of Mistletoe is and if he can possible in a very thick place or in some Pit for he is a very melancholy sort of Bird he makes as large a Nest as a Jay and lays as big an Egg He builds commonly with rotten Twigs the out-side of his Nest and the in-side is dead Grass Hey or Moss that he pulls from Trees this Bird delights mightily in old Orchards where commonly is much Feed upon the Apple-Trees she seldom lays above five Eggs but four most commonly she breeds but twice a year and hath three young ones never above four as I could find she feeds all her young ones with the Berries of the Misseltoe and nothing else as ever I could perceive having diligently watched them two or three hours together Many Writers are of opinion That this Bird is an excellent Remedy against Convulsions and Falling-Sickness for this reason That the Misseltoe is so good and he continually feeding upon nothing else a Remedy againstit and is an approved excellent Medicine The way of using it is To kill him and dry him to a Pouder and take the quantity of a peny-weight every morning in six spoonfuls of the distilled Water of Misletoe-Berries or Black-Cherry Water fasting an hour after and they say one Bird taking will certainly effect the Cure I never did experiment the truth of it but in my opinion it stands to a great deal of reason It 's no chargeable Medicine only finding of a Nest or shooting an old Bird and make tryal The young Birds taken about fourteen days old are easie to be brought up being a very hardy Bird but I think it will not answer your expectation if you breed him for Song for he hath a confused rambling Song and not lavish neither the young ones are fed with Bread and Hemp-Seed and a little Sheeps-Heart between whiles it 's a handsom Bird for a voletie and will breed like Pigeons if rightly ordered The next is your Felfare or Northern Throstle which comes to us after Michaelmass and tarries here all the Winter and departs the first of March Their Feed with us is Hips and Haws in hard Weather and in open Weather Worms and young Grass lieing altogether upon Meadow or pasture-Pasture-Grounds they come in very great numbers and go away also in Flocks They breed upon certain Rocks near the Sea-side in Scotland where they are in abundance and have Young three or four times every year I have taken them in great numbers at Winter with your Bird-Lime as I have before directed you in the last Addition I have for curiosity kept one in a Cage to see if they had any Song but I found it not worth my labour for when Spring came he made nothing but a chattering so that I found him far better for a Spit than a Cage they being excellent Meat when they are very Fat which is commonly in hard Weather in open Weather they are very bitter and not worth eating The next is your Wind-Throstle which comes along with this Felfare or Northern-Throstle but is much smaller with a dark red under his Wing This Bird breeds in Woods and Shawes as your Song-Throstles in Scotland and hath an indifferent Song far exceeding the two former In February in fine Weather the Sun shining they will get very many together upon a Tree and sing two or three hours some do fancy their Song by reason it is not harsh but a pretty kind of sweet chattering Note like unto the Swallow only a little louder I think them not worth ones pains to keep them for they will not sing above three months and so give off The next is the Wood-Song Throstle which is a very rare Song-Bird first For the great variety of his Notes and secondly For the lavishness in his Song this as in all other Birds one far exceeding another in Song though Birds of the same kind Thirdly He continues longer than any Bird in Song continuing at least nine months in a year This Bird is so well known to most Country-men that it needs no Description He is very good for Man's Food but I never could endure to kill them by reason they are so fine Song-Birds The Hen makes her Nest in the beginning of March which Frost and Snow and very hard Weather upon the stump of an old Tree or side of the Coppice by a Ditch according as she finds food and stuff most convenient for her Building and Food for her young ones She maketh her Nest of Moss that grows upon old stumps of Trees that are in the Woods she fashions her Nest round and deep with Moss and some dry Grass when she hath compleated the first part she wonderfully and after a most exact and cunning way daubs the in-side with a sort of Earth called your Loam that the poor People in the Country Plaister their Walls with she doth it so smooth and even and all with her Bill that it goes beyond the Art of Man to perform with any Tools and the Bird commonly leaves a Hole in the middle of the bottom of her Nest which I suppose may be to this end That it may not be drowned upon any sudden violent Showers or long continuance of Rain which by this Hole at the bottom she preserves both her Eggs and Young Ones from being killed and drowned which if not so provided might prove to the destruction of both They breed commonly three times in a year if they meet with no disturbance or casualties by the way if the Weather be fine and warm they go very soon to Nest the first commonly is hatched in April and now and then at the latter end of March the second in May and the third in June but the first Birds prove most usually the best and stoutest Birds The Throstle taken in the Nest may be at fourteen days old and must be kept pretty warm and neat not suffering them to sit upon their Dung if it fall into the Nest but so contrive it that they may dung over the Nest whilst they are young and small you must feed them with raw Meat and some Bread mixed and chopped together with some bruised Hemp-Seed wet your
that may a little heat and make square Holes and plant three in a Hole triangular in Mold and when you perceive them above-ground water them very well with Dung-water and they will thrive exceeding well when you see a Pompion kernel'd and grown to the bigness of a Goose Egg and the Runner shoot forward and produce another a yard beyond him lay the Runner half a foot or more in the Ground and it will shoot out Roots and nourish the other Pompion for that next the Root intercepts all the Sap from the other and in two or three days will pine to nothing observing this direction you may have nine or ten upon a Root otherwise very seldom above three I have seen nine very large ones upon a Root Now your Colly-flowers having six or seven Leaves are ready to be planted and order them thus Dig as many Holes about a foot square and deep and a yard apart and make a Hole between every four then put a shovelful or two of good rotten Dung into every Hole and mix it well together then taking up your Plants very carefully with the Mold set them in so deep that the tops of the Leaves may not be so high as the Ground and water them very well then lay a Cabbage-leaf over every hole to keep the hot Sun and cold Air from them if it be a very dry time water them often or else you will be deceived in the flowering of them How to order Goose-berries and Currans WHen you go about to plant your Goose-berry and Curran-Garden chuse out those Trees that are streight and without knots and plant them in Ground well dunged they thrive best in a sandy Mold after they have stood one year if there be any young Shoots cut them all off very close to the Body and suffer not a bushy head but let it be very thin kept and then the Sun shall ripen him and he will grow extraordinary large Order your Currans after the same manner and Rose also and your Garden shall look comely and handsome and bear far better than if they were three-times as big every two years you must refresh them with Dung if you intend to have them very large If you keep your Goose-berries and Currans to one Head the shadow of them will do no injury but you may plant any sort of Flowers or Herbs under them and they shall prosper and thrive as well as if there were no Trees standing How to Preserve and Increase all sorts of Carnations and Auriculasses SEveral People that love and delight in Flowers and those of the best sort as Carnations and Auriculasses yet through ignorance and want of care they very seldom live above two years so are almost tired and disheartned to renew their former delights and the reason is because they have not the true way of preserving and increasing them First How to preserve them It hath been an usual way to set them in several Pots and in hard Weather to remove them into the House which hath proved so troublesome and chargeable for they must have a little House on purpose that most are weary of it except them that make it their livelyhood Now observe this way and you shall have better Flowers and lose few When you have bought your Layers of the best Flowers set them in a Bed of pure Mold rooted from Horse-Dung and not Cow-Dung because it encreaseth Worms which will devour the Flowers when it draws near Winter take some short new Horse-Dung and lay it at least a foot thick all over the Bed between the Flowers and have some Earthen Pots about a foot deep with their bottoms out to stand over the Flowers to keep the Dung from them and when it is very hard cover the top of your Pot with a Tile and it will keep your Flowers from Frost and weat Weather which is the destruction of a thousand in a year when it is a fine day give them Air and Sun-shine and cover them again at Night this way shall save you a great deal of trouble to remove them into your House in hard Weather Now to increase them about July or August if you have Slips upon your Flowers take a sharp Knife and at a Knot cut it half in two let the Knot be an inch or more from the Stem then with a little hooked Stick peg it close to the Ground and cover it over with Earth like a little Mole-hill and when you perceive that the Layer hath taken Root cut it off with a sharp Knife and take it up Mold and all and plant it out and so you may encrease your Stock these great sort of Flowers will not grow with slipping as your Clove-Gilly-Flowers you must slip your Auriculasses and preserve them after the same manner as I directed for the Carnation An excellent way to recover any Horse or Cow that is stiff with Cold being Mired in a Ditch I Have seen several Beasts that have happened by some miscarriage to fall into a Ditch or Pond and having stayed some considerable time they have been so stiff as though they had been dead Now to recover these deadish stiff Limbs order him thus If he be so stiff that he is not in a capacity to go get a Cart and carry him home then give him half an ounce of Mithridate in a quart of strong Ale where a handful of Rue Angelica and Balm hath been boiled then put him into a hot Dunghil and chafe his Joints very well with the Oil of St. John's-Wort and Rue mixed together and by the next morning you shall find him recovered but keep anointing of his Legs for three or four days after and if occasion require put him another night in the Dung and give him the like quantity again How to order all Physical Herbs growing here to thrive and prosper VEry many People of all sorts have been making of your Physick-Gardens not for any great use they have made of them but most out of curiosity to see the variety of Plants which not knowing rightly to order have had the greatest part of them for want of some instructions been dead and decayed in two years time therefore I have here set down some certain approved Rules for their preservation First When you have made your Garden then consider how many sorts of Earth and the several shady places for Herbs that love it for you must consider the nature of the Herb what it delights in I shall give six or seven Examples which I hope will be sufficient for all as first For your Adder-tongue it grows in moist low Grounds and Meadows if this Herb be planted in a hot Ground it may flourish a little for the first year but you may look for it in the Meadows the next therefore plant him in some moist place of the Garden Angelica is an Herb hot and dry if you plant it in a cold moist Ground it pines away and comes not to any thing
Belly when it shews it self more puffed up than ordinary full of reddish veins and his Breast very lean and sharp and seeing him spill and cast his Seeds about the Cage not caring to eat at all This Disease comes to the Linnet many times for want of Water and having your Charlack-Seeds mingled amongst your Rape-Seeds and for want of giving him a little green meat at the Spring of the Year when you perceive the Bird to begin to be troubled with this Disease first to cut the end of his Rump and to give him some white Sugar-candy in his Water with two or three slices of Liquorish for want of Sugar-candy let him put in fine Sugar And for his Meat you shall give him Beets Lettice to feed upon or some of the Herb called Mercurie which is a very good Herb for this Distemper for any Seed-Bird you may likewise give her Mellon-Seeds chopped small and at the bottom of the Cage put some fine Gravel with a little Powder-Sugar and a little ground Oat-Meal you may put also some Loom that the Country-People do daub their Walls withal instead of Morter and Sand every one almost knows bruise this small and it will bring him to a Stomach if he be not too far gone and past cure The Linnet is also subject unto the Streins or Convulsions of the Breast wherefore being oppressed with this Disease you shall feed him with Lettice-Seeds Beet-Seeds and Mellon-Seeds bruised and in his Water you shall dissiolve some Sugar-candy and some of the Nightingal's Paste with a little Liquorish so much that the Water may have a taste of it and so continue it for the space of four or five days now and then taking of it away and giving her Plantain-Water be sure to give her a Beet-Leaf or Lettice-Leaf upon the day that you give her Plantain-Water The Linnet is also subject unto a Hoarsness in his Voice which many times comes through straining her Voice in singing and many times she gets a Husk in her Throat which is seldom helped to come so clear off at first many times also if it be a strong-metled Bird he will break something within him that he will never come to sing again for the hoarsness which is very often taken in his Mouth which is thus to keep him very hot and upon a sudden to open his Cage to the Air which immediately strikes a cold to his Breast and Throat and oftentimes kills him for if you have a Bird in the Moult you must not carry him to the Air but keep him at a stay till he is moulted off and then open him by degrees that so he may not take cold and give him after his Moult something to clean se him your Beet-leaves and some Liquorish in his Water There is no better Remedy in the World for a hoarsness than to put into his Water some Liquorish and a few Annise-Seeds and then set him in a warm place The Linnet is also subject to a great Scouring I gave you an account of several sorts of them in the foregoing Chapter where I treated of the Canary-Bird Concerning the Gold-Finch THe next to the Linnet of Seed-Birds is the Golden-Finch which is a very rare and curious-coloured Bird and were they not so plenty they would be of very great esteem amongst us here but plenty of any thing makes it slighted and not regarded This Bird is taken in great plenty about Michaelmass time and will very soon become tame the Beautifulness with the pretty melodious Song that this Bird hath causes very many to keep them They were formerly carried beyond Sea to several places for a very great Rarity These Gold-Finches differ very much in their Tunes for some of them sing after one fashion and some after another which needed not further be proved but by them that have kept them for it is in this Bird as in all others variety one Bird surpassing another both in goodness variety and lavishness of Song They breed commonly in your Apple-Trees and Plum-Trees and to my knowledg I never saw a Nest in a quickset-Hedge They make their Nest of Moss that grows upon Apple-Trees and Wool and Quilt the inside with all sorts of Hair they find upon the Ground they breed three times in a year You must take young ones with the Nest about ten days old and they must be fed thus Take some of your best Hemp-seed and beat it in a Morter very fine then sift it through a Sieve and put as much white-Bread as Hemp-Seed and put also a little flower of Canary-Seeds to it so with a small stick or quill take up as much as the bignes of a white Pea and give them three or four bits at a time you must make it fresh every day it is soon done when the Hemp-Seeds are bruised and sifted if it be sower it will immediately spoil their Stomachs and cause them to cast up their Meat and then it is ten to one if they live You must be sure to keep these Birds very warm till they can feed themselves for they are very tender Birds you may almost bring them up to any thing being a very tame Bird be sure that in feeding of this Bird you make clean his Bill and Mouth and if any of the Meat fall upon his Feathers take it off otherwise they will not thrive This Bird that eats Hemp-Seeds shall take for a Purge the Seeds of Mellons Succory and Mercurie which is a principal Herb for the Linnet but this Bird you may give Lettice and Plantain which are excellent Herbs for this Bird to purge him and when they have no need of purging you must give them two or three times a week a little Sugar or some Loom in their Meat or at the bottom of their Cage to this end they may eat some to scour their Stomachs which for want thereof is the great destruction of our Birds that feed upon Seeds For nothing can be more wholesome for them than Wall or Loom-Earth and some fine Sand and a lump or knob or two of Sugar always in their Cage for all Seeds have a great oiliness in them and if they have not something to dry up that Oiliness in the Stomach in length of time it fouls their Stomachs and puts them into a Flux and nothing is worse than unsound and damaged Seeds which in a short time destroyes them Concerning the Chaff-Finch THis Bird is a very plentiful Bird and of some is much admired for his Song but I have no great fancy for him by reason he seldom varies in his Song like unto other Birds and hath no pleasingness nor sweetness in his Song like unto the aforementioned Birds At flight-time this Bird is very plentifully caught but their Nests are very scanty found as of the Gold-Finch also This Bird breeds in hedges Trees of all sorts and makes his Nest of Moss and Wool or any thing almost that he can gather up where she breeds They
therefore the richest Ground is best Liver-wort is a Herb that delights to grow in moist shady places as by the heads of Springs and Ponds and insides of Wells and is green all the year this Herb must be planted by some moist Wall or shady Bank where it sees very little of the Sun for any heat or dryth kills it Rosemary is a hot and dry Herb delights to grow in the Sun and near a Wall if that be planted in a cold springy place it pines away to nothing if your Ground be very cold and Rosemary subject to die mingle half your Mold with Lime and it will thrive and prosper extraordinary Observe one thing There is no Herb that grows if it doth not delight in the Sun that is good for the Heart Harts-tongue delights by High-way sides in Banks of Ditches and not in the bottoms plant him upon the Bank of some Ditch Penny-royal delights in a hot and moist place plant it where it may only have the morning Sun keep it low and suffer it not to grow into long Branches for then it usually dies in the end Take notice alwayes That what Herbs you plant order the place where you set it to be of the nature of your Plant that is thus If your Herb be hot and dry a hot and dry place in your Garden if cold and dry a cold and dry place so hot and moist and cold and moist you may know the temperature of any Herb almost by the place where you find him naturally to grow for it 's contrary to Sense and Reason that cold and moist Herbs should thrive in hot and dry places How to gather Herbs and a true way to dry them THey that intend to dry Herbs to have them good must observe their Times and Seasons Gather your Herbs where they naturally grow as your Betony it delights in Woods gather him when it begins to bud out for flowering tie them up in small Bunches and hang it cross the Lines in the Wind and Sun the quicker you dry any Herbs the far better it is gather always in a dry day and let it not hang where it can rain upon it for that will make it look black and also take away the scent when you have dryed them put them in Brown-Paper-Bags and before Winter lay them two or three hours in the Sun and that will very much refresh them hang them in a warm dry place but not too hot for then the heat will draw out the Spirits of them Here is but three things to be observed to have extraordinary good dryed Herbs Gather them in the Prime pick them clean from withered rotten Leaves and dry them quick in the Sun and Wind to preserve them keeping them neither too hot nor too cold and air them in the Sun three or four times in a Winter Thus I have in short shewed the Planting Gathering and Drying of Herbs SOME Further Additions Concerning Singing-Birds WE having spoke before of some varieties for Profit and also Pleasure in ordering of several sorts of Fruit-Trees and Gardening and a small touch of Recreation for taking of Fish and Birds but now I do intend to enter into a Discourse of Taking Preserving and Keeping all sorts of Birds which sing melodiously with ravishing sweet and pleasant Songs wherewith the Master may have his Recreation and Pleasure by hearing them sing in his Closes Hedges Parks or at his Chamber-Window or otherwise shut up in some Cages Rooms or Aviaries with Out-lets for them to take the Air made for that purpose to contain the Subject of such pleasure and delightsome Melody And that we may not omit any thing before we lay down any particular Manner or Way of taking such Birds we shall take a short view of the Nature Breeding Feeding and Diseases of the same for in my Opinion it were almost labour in vain to take Birds if to the end we may not enjoy their sweet and melodious Songs for some considerable time for without you know what Meat is agreeable to them and rightly to order them and what Diseases and Infirmities they are subject unto and what Means and Remedies are necessary to be used for their Distemperatures In the mean time I intend not here to bring in Fabulous Stories and Histories of their Original Breeding which fantastical Poets have vainly imagined and invented but resolve to rest my self contented with this strong perswasion That all Birds from the beginning of the World were miraculously created by God's Almighty Power of his own meer Will and Word whereby he created all other Creatures in the beginning of the World Of the Nightingale NOW every Man hath almost a several phansie some make choice of one Bird some of another but in my choice and opinion the Nightingal hath the superiority above all others and almost according to the judgment and consent of every one she singeth with so much variety the sweetest and melodiest of all others I need not much describe the Bird by reason she is sufficiently known to most People by reason of her plentifulness and tameness and far more kept in Italy than in any other parts of the World though in most Countries I have been they keep them little or much They appear to us at the beginning of April none as yet knowing where their Habitation is during all the Winter I have made several tryals in the beginning middle and latter end of August of several Nightingals that I have taken being so extream fat that they being turned loose could not fly forty yards and when down was not able to rise again which makes most believe that they take up their dwelling here all the Winter and think them to sleep for I have had several when fat to be three weeks and not eat one bit of meat which in some short time begins to make her Nest usually she makes it about a foot and a half or two foot above Ground either in thick Quick-set Hedges or in Beds of Nettles where old Quick-set hath been thrown together and Nettles grown through and makes it of such materials as the place affords she hath commonly young ones at the beginning of the Month of May when all the Earth is beset and spangled with the curious varieties of all odoriferous Flowers and pleasant greenness and in Groves and thick Bushes formed in the likeness of a Wilderness upon which the Sun in the morning doth cast his cool and temperate Beams from noon till the setting thereof she naturally delights to haunt cool places where small Rivolets Fountains and Brooks are accommodated with Groves Shades thick Quick-set Hedges and other well-shadowed places not far distant I told afore how I found their Nests made but some have affirmed to me That they have found them upon the Ground at the bottom of Hedges and amongst wast Grounds and some of them that have found them upon Banks that have been raised and then overgrown with thick Grass in which they have
though he be never so fat This Bird makes her Nest about the latter end of April and hath young by the middle of May she always breeds in the Ground by some Pond-side or Ditch-side or in a Garden in high Grass she makes her Nest of dead-Grass and a few small Roots and commonly lays six Eggs or five at least and feeds her young ones with Caterpillars and Flies they are Birds very easily brought up being they are hardy and are not subject to Colds and Cramps as other Birds are but live long if preserved with care If you breed this Bird up young and cleanly he is a very pretty tame singing-Bird and to a great many hath a very pleasing Song according to the old Proverb Short and sweet Concerning the Red-Start THis Bird is of a very dogged sullen temper for I know the Nature of him that when I have declared you will judg the same by his effects for if taken old and not out of the Nest he is very hard to be tamed he will be so vexed sometimes as is a wonderful thing almost incredible if I had not tryed it my self for being taken in a Cage and ordered as we formerly directed you in the Nightingal he hath been so dogged that in ten days time he would never look towards the Meat and when he fed himself hath been a whole month without singing may I have known them never sing at all till they were brought to their accustomed place This Bird is a fore-runner of the Nightingal and comes four or five days before we generally hear him and is of a chearful temper and hath a very pretty melodious kind of Whistling-Song The Cock is very fair and beautifully coloured and is exceeding pleasant to the Eye She breeds three times in a year the latter end of April in May and towards the latter end of June this is their ordinary course without some-body spoil or touch their Eggs and then they may come sooner or later They build most usually in holes of hollow Trees or under House-Eves and make their Nest with all sorts of things as dry Grass small Roots of Herbs and Leaves Horse-Hair and Wool according as the place affords them Of all Birds that I know this is one of the shiest for if she perceive you to mind her when she is Building she will forsake it and if you touch an Egg she never comes to her Nest more for you can very hardly go to it but she will immediately spie you and if she chance to have young ones she will either starve them or break their Necks with throwing them out of the Nest for I can speak it of my own knowledg That I having found a Nest in a hole of a hollow Tree took one out of the Nest to see how fledg'd they were and immediately put it in again and having occasion to come that way the next morning I found them all dead under the Tree which made me admire but since I have tryed two or three more and they are all of one nature for doggedness but if you bring them up young they alter their Nature and become very tame and pleasant to their Keeper You must take them out of the Nest about ten days old for if you let them be too long in the Nest they are apt to learn some of the old Birds temper and be very sullen These Birds are fed with Sheeps-Heart and Egg minced and chopped very small and given at the end of a Stick when they open their Mouths about the quantity of three white Peas for if you clog their Stomachs too much they will presently cast their Meat and in a short time die When you perceive him to eat off the Meat from the Stick Cage them up and put their Meat in a Pan and about the sides of the Cage not ceasing though he feeds of himself to give him three or four times a day a bit or two for he will hardly eat his fill for the first three or four days he begins to feed alone but when you have accustomed him to eat five or six days without feeding give him some of the Nightingals Paste and you will find him very much delight in it You may keep him in what Cage you please only let him be warm in Winter and he will sing in the Night as well as in the Day There is few People know this Bird when they see him He is a very lovely Bird to the Eye and very pleasant to the Ear. Concerning the Hedg-Sparrow THis is a pretty Song-Bird and singeth very early in the Spring though little taken notice of he hath a very pleasant Song with a great deal of variety old or young become tame very quickly and will sing in a short space after they are taken if you take them in the latter end of January or beginning of February They feed upon Wood-Larks Meat or any thing else you will give them They build their Nests in a White-Thorn or private-Hedg and make it of dead Grass and fine Moss and Leaves with a little Wool She lays an Egg much different from other Birds being of a very fine blew colour and hath commonly five Eggs and brings up her young ones with all sorts of Food she can get This is a very tractable Bird and will take any Birds Song almost if taken young out of the Nest This Bird I verily believe would be taught to whistle and speak but more of this when I come to speak of Whistling-Birds in their order Concerning the Solitary-Sparrow THis Bird is naturally given to Melancholy he loveth solitary and by-places and from thence at first came his name they do much delight to live by old decayed and uninhabited places as being far removed from the company of all sorts of Birds She is very jealous both of her Eggs and young Ones she maketh her Nest in Holes and chiefly of old Banks or in the holes of old hollow Trees she builds with any Materials which lies next to her Habitation and most nigh and convenient to her Nest for she is a very idle Bird and now and then doth not lay together stuff enough to keep her young warm She breeds three times a year in April May and June and hath her young at no certainty If you will bring up any young chuse out the fairest of the Nest and biggest also and let them be pretty well covered with Feathers before you take them out for they are not given to be sullen without you let them alone so long till they are just ready to fly and if they will not open their Bills take them and open them and give them the quantity of two grey Peas at three or four times and in a short time you will perceive them to eat of themselves you may put in their Pan or Trough some of the Sheeps-Heart or Egg as you feed the young ones withal notwithstanding they do feed themselves put two or three pieces