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soaked for a iiiinute or so in cold water and then squeezed out. 

 This the birds took to imuiediately, and the young were 

 reared without any trouble. I have since invariably supplied 

 it to my Parrakeets when breeding. 



Consider the enormous number of canary-seeds the parents 

 would have to shell in order to provide for a hungry brood of 

 from five to ten youngsters, for the latter number is b}- no 

 means unknown in the case of Budgerigars. To expect 

 parents to rear such broods on dry seed and green food alone 

 would be unreasonable. vSoft food of some kind appears to me 

 to be necessary therefore, or at any rate most advisable, though 

 I do not mean to say that young Parrakeets cannot be reared 

 without it. 



Dr. Creswell says, that " if bread is necessary for youi:g 

 birds it should be given to the parents in a dry state, and it 

 will be sufficiently moistened by them before being given to 

 the young." I quite agree that the parents will themselves 

 moisten it before giving it to the young, for, had Dr. Creswell 

 had much experience in feeding Parrots he would know that 

 sooner than eat dry bread they will, if they possibly can, drag 

 it to their drinking- w^ater and soak it themselves. Several 

 times I found that the Cockatiels had done this when, in hot 

 weather, the bread had become too dry for their liking. 



Whether it be a "stupid fad " or not to give soaked bread 

 to Parrakeets when rearing young, the fact remains that this 

 addition to their ordinary diet at such times is highly 

 appreciated by them, and they are thus enabled to rear their 

 voung with much less difficulty than if it were withheld; and 

 although I know of hundreds of young birds having been 

 reared in aviaries in which this food formed a daily item in the 

 menu, I have never known a case of a young bird dying from 

 its ill effects. Are we then to give it up just because we are 

 told that it is not good iii theory, when in practice we know 

 that it is ? D. Sprrn-SMiTH. 



Sir,— I am always glad to read the record of anyone's 

 ■experiences with the view of learning interesting and impor- 

 tant facts therefrom, and those of Mr. Seth-vSmith in relation 

 to any of the Parrot tribe will at all times specially commend 

 themselves to me. But I feel that I nmst protest against his 

 too evident mingling of assumption with fact when he records 

 his experiences for the purpose of criticizing me. 



