29 



M}' birds, which are all in the best of health, have 

 a good siippU' of clean water everj' day in large shallow 

 pans, and all but the Budgerigars and Cockatiels wash 

 thoroughly. I supply egg food daily, also canary seed 

 and hemp mixed, white and spray millet, groats, and 

 plenty of green food, and sometimes an apple. 



I have been successful in breeding Bengalese, Zebra- 

 finches, and Ribbon-finches, and, considering that I have 

 not had my birds for more than a year, I think this is 

 encouraging. I have, at the time of writing, a nice 

 brood of 3'oung Budgerigars nearly ready to leave the 

 nest. I find the chief difficulty in breeding foreign 

 birds is the delicacv of tlie hens — recently I have lost, 

 without any apparent cause, three hen Cordon-bleus, 

 and I should be much obliged if any member could 

 supply my wants, in that direction. (See advt). 



My birds are so used to seeing me amongst them that 

 the}- pay little or no attention to my coming or going. I 

 have a stove always burning in the cold weather, and the 

 wire cage it is enclosed in forms a favourite roosting 



place. ISABPXI^A BEI^FORD WlIySON. 



COMMON BIRDS. 



I think the average foreign-bird-keeper is too mucli 

 given to the pursuit of the rare. He does not care to 

 bu\- any species which he has already possessed. Con- 

 sequenil}, having run tlnough the list of the kinds 

 always obtainable, his choice is restricted to the rarer 

 birds, and each year he buys rarer and rarer ones, until 

 he can get nothing which he cares to have, except at a 

 very high price, and, finding his hobb}' getting too 

 costly, gives it up in disgust. The mistake he makes is in 

 fancying that he has exhausted the possibilities of a 

 species by the possession for a few years of one or two 

 examples. 



There is not a single species which has yet been 

 adequately studied. There is any amount of amusement 

 and instruction to be extracted from careful observation 



