16 



What follows is based upon the article of four 

 years ago, but the whole has been entirely re-written, 

 and it will be found that the advice given differs con- 

 siderably from that in the original paper. 



I. SMALL SKED-EATING BIRDS. 



This group comprises grosbeaks, true finches, 

 buntings, waxbills, grassfinches, mannikins, whydahs, 

 and weavers — in fact, all the " finches" in the widest 

 sense of the term. Also some South American forms 

 classed by some ornithologists (probably wrongbO 

 with the Tanagers. The Orange-billed Tanagers 

 {Saltator aitrantiirostris) exhibited at the Crystal 

 Palace in October 1903, are examples of these seed- 

 eating Tanagers. 



Canary seed is the most generally useful of all 

 seeds, and all seed-eating birds may be supplied 

 with it ad lib. It is, unfortunately, often of inferior 

 quality. The grain should be full and bright, free 

 from shucked seeds, dust, and the excreta of mice. 

 When the hand is plunged into a quantity of it, the 

 seed should feel soft and very slippery, not harsh and 

 rough. The beginner would usually do well to buy 

 from a respectable bird dealer, rather than from a corn 

 merchant — for the dealer knows good seed when he 

 sees it, and will, for the sake of his own stock, have 

 no other. On the other hand, highly respectable 

 corn merchants will sometimes supply inferior bird- 

 seed, because the sale of such seed forms only a small 

 and unimportant branch of their business, which it is 

 not worth their while to trouble about. 



Indian viillet I consider to be next in value to 

 canary seed. It is similar to, but not quite identical 

 with, spray millet. In food value I believe Indian millet 

 and " spray" to be equal, but I always use the Indian 

 as the spray form is so much more troublesome. Why 

 it is called "Indian" I do not know — I understand 



