70 



foraging the woods for acorns and wood-nuts hidden 

 by the squirrels for food for the winter. I could go 

 on multiplying these country scenes which I am so 

 familiar with, if space would permit. In aviaries, 

 birds get none of this roving life, their food being 

 already found them, so they should have diversions 

 provided in order to keep up their spirits and 

 vivacity. 



I have treated of health, and this has all to do 

 with song, for if the birds are not health}^ you will get 

 little or no song from them. Thej^ must not be kept 

 on too low a diet — their food should be nourishing 

 and stimulating, but not fattening. Young birds, 

 especially Thrushes, need a teacher. Place them 

 where they can hear your best singing old bird. My 

 best singing young Thrush came from a cottage just 

 beyond Guildford, a place where Thrushes abound. 



There is a subject I have never seen dealt with in 

 books, and I have not the ability to enter into it fully, 

 but many of my readers have undoubtedly noticed 

 how much more keen and acute some of the senses 

 are in birds than they are in man For instance, the 

 keenness and quickness of sight in the Swallow in 

 catching flies on the wing, the long-sightedness of the 

 Kagle and the Hawk, how they can detect the smallest 

 bird or animal movingon the ground from an immense 

 height. The quickness of hearing we perceive in the 

 Jay, Magpie, Woodpecker, and Cuckoo. 



Now I have come to the subject of colour in the 

 wild birds : the beautiful colour and sheen which 

 we are unable to maintain in confinement, even in 

 aviaries. Dr. Bradburn maintained that it is the 

 country life and fresh air that gives the wild bird his 

 lovely colour. Darwin ascribes all the different 

 colours of the various birds to variations in their 

 diet, and hence I contend that the maintaining 

 of the lovely natural colour and sheen of our 



