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lightly stirring in ants' eggs and crushed hemp. I 

 prepare this fresh every morning, and I find it keeps 

 all the insectivorous birds in health and song. 

 Some of the lairds leave the ants' eggs, others leave the 

 hemp, but they all do well on the preparation. I give 

 a few mealworms as well to the more delicate birds. 

 For the seed-eating birds I give best hemp in one hopper 

 and best Spanish canary in another, and the following 

 mixed seed I throw on the sand and grit: coarse oat- 

 meal, linseed, rape, canary, hemp, maw, and niger — 

 (oatmeal is good for Larks). This stimulating diet 

 needs modifying for birds which are caged. Hemp 

 and maw must then be given very sparingly. Give 

 groundsel, plantain, chickweed, watercress, lettuce, as 

 often as you can get it, also turf with young clover in 

 it, for your Larks. 



There is one very important thing I think fanciers 

 sadly overlook as regards their birds' well-being. We 

 want to keep our birds amused and interested ; this 

 will greatly assist in keeping them in good health and 

 song. Put a tree of privet in your aviary occasionall}^ 

 or a branch of hawthorn. After Christmas you can 

 buy a fir tree cheap. If 3'ou do this you will find your 

 Goldfinches as happy as can be, pecking off every bit 

 of green, whilst the Crossbill is busy barking it, and 

 the Hawfinch breaking off the small branches ; in fact, 

 every bird is delighted with this new interest — and 

 it is natural that they should be, for in their wild 

 state they are continually occupied. In summer they 

 have the delights of nesting. When these are over and 

 winter comes on, every species, in some degree, 

 wanders about the country — the Goldfinches are in 

 small flocks, flying about looking for a field of 

 thistles ; the commoner finches pay a visit to the 

 farm stack-yards. The Owls visit the barns for 

 mice ; the Raven is flying along, uttering his miserable 

 croak, looking for a dead lamb for a feast. The Jays are 



