Correspondence. 91 



Correspondence. 



MILLET SEKD SAMPLES. 

 SiK, — I am about to make a confession of deplorable ignorance after 

 over forty years of aviculture. I have been starving to death, and nearly to 

 death, some dear little foreign linches 1 have had over twelve years ! 1 

 could not get Indian millet locally, so always sent to London for it, until 

 quite lately, when I found it was (seemingly) obtainable. I used it, just 

 noticing it was slightly larger and brighter than the ordinary, so apparently a 

 better quality. After a time I remarked the birds seemed dull and mopish, 

 ,-.0 unlike their usual cheery little selves, especially in the spring time ; they 

 would sit huddled together as one sees them in dealers' shops, neither singing, 

 nor bathing, nor interesting themselves in the sod of flowering grass with 

 which they are always supplied. Too late I discovered this Indian millet (?) 

 though scattered about, was never eaten — not a grain of it — and the little 

 things had been subsisting on white millet, and only a scanty supply of that, 

 for they cared little about it in ordinary times. There was always a supply 

 of canary seed for other birds, but that I knew they never touched. On 

 discovering what was amiss I at once gave the real thing, of which there 

 happened to be a little in the travelling cage of some new arrivals, until I 

 could get some down from town, and the survivors happily recovered. The 

 question to me is what was that fatal seed? It was not " Brown Millet," 

 for I know brown millet. This query- ma\- be a display of ignorance, but 

 it may possibly act as a warning to other aviculturists of less ancient date 

 than mx'self. I enclose samples of the seed. 



I'.ishops Lydeard: April 17, 1922. (Mrs.) E. A. H. HARTLEY. 



[One sample was the seed usually sold as Indian millet, but imperfectly 

 cleaned; the other was a good sample of yellow millet, a variety which few 

 foreign birds will eat, or only take a little under the stress of hunger- — it 

 u.sually appears in fair quantity in young chicken mixtures, and would, we opine 

 l)e quite wholesome providing the birds could be induced to eat it freely. — Ed.] 



STRAY NOTES ON BIRDS AND MICE. 



Sir, — A few notes may be useful of " B.N.," though, I fear, there 

 is little that is new or of particular interest to record. 



Last winter 1920-1, as an experiment I allowed the hundred birds in 

 m\ mixed aviary to have the use of the outside flight the entire winter, and 

 casualties were few. I dread to think what would have happened under 

 the same arrangement this winter — In the stone-walled enclosed aviary 

 (15ft. X 15ft. X 15ft.) I have had fewer losses than ever before. The 

 Lavender Finches, Blue-breasted Waxbills and similar species have come 

 through in fine form, and are now in breeding condition. 



The cock Indigo Bunting changes into his azure breeding plumage in 

 ^larch each year ; the hen, I am sorry to say, died recently after spending 

 seven years in the aviary, and I would much like another. 



The Cape Canaries {Serimis canicollis) are wonderful songsters, and. 



