CorrespondcMce. 01 



Cockatcels need a lai-ge husk, or a nest liox with a concave 

 hottom, which forms a slight hollow for the egg?- to liei in, otherwise 

 they roll about and get spoiled. They require no nesting materia} 

 and the hay in the box evidently con'tributed tu their faiiui'e 

 to hatch out. 



The Madagascar Lovebirds and Budgerigars will doubtless 

 do l>etter now they ai'e separated. It is not always easy to make 

 adeciuate arrangements in a cage, Init there sli)uld be two nest 

 receptacles for each pair of birds in any cage or aviary. 



WESLEY T. PAGE. 



FEATHER BITING 



Sir, — The following facts may interest Parrot keepers. I 

 have two Senegals (Pccocephalus senegalensis) in a cage 3 feet x 

 H. I noticed one afternoon that feather picking was going on. 

 They are in my dining-room, so I see them every day. As the 

 back of the head of one bird w\as picked and not the othei-, it was 

 clear one was the culprit. I separated them, and the picker 

 continued its bad habit. I hoped to stop it by turaingi it loose, 

 but the weather was not suitable till to-day (March 1st), and last 

 night it bit off all its flight feathers. Now I wisli to remark that 

 it was not irritation of skin. For it bit the feathers off, and l)it 

 Ihem off the other bird. It was not depraved appetite, for it did 

 not eat them. And as the cage was large enough for it to fly from 

 perch to perch, and it had a breeding box and nesting material, 

 and fresli apple boughs to bark, it could hardly have been boredom. 

 It seems to have suddenly discovered that Inting feathers in two was 

 fascinating. 



I have turned it into an aviary — unheated, but it must take 

 the consequences of its own misdemeanours. But I have no hope 

 of cure. As it does not pull the feathers out, but bites them off, i,t 

 will have to stop soon for want of material. 



A sweep In Cheltenham undertook to cure feather pickers, 

 ft was said he covered them with soot. 



I think this case shows that sometimes people are a little 

 too off-hand when they at once assume that feather picking is the 

 result of wrong feeding. It may be the result of a too active 

 brain. 



F. G. BUTTON. 



POISONOUS PLANTS. 



Sir.— In my new Tanager and Sugar-bird Aviary I have a 

 small fountain in each compartment. I told my gardener to have 

 the basins surrounded with moss and small ferns. The moss used 

 was Lpcapodium — all went well for a few' days, when two Superb 



