• Keepivq of SnflhiJJs in Cages 145 



and noxt inoi'iiiiii^- xdw ItdioM ;iii oltjV^ct of porfect misery, 

 suffering' from a had cold, and |nu'uinonia g'oncrally follows, 

 with fatal results. 



To ,c:ivc' liirds the honefit of open air treatment, I 

 always, during- tlio suniinoi- moiilh-^. fi'om June to September, 

 put sonic in tlnn'r r:\'j:('s out of dooi-s in a covered verandah. 

 Tare mu-^t l)c takmi, howcvei-. tiiat they are not exposed to 

 draughts. M'ith cai-eful feeding they will stand a good deal 

 of cold dui'ing tiic night, and as long as the cage is big' 

 enougl: foi- thoni for them (o take plenty of exercise, no harm 

 will follow. 



Cold veksts AVakm Treatmknt. I am no believer in 

 coddling, but if you want to keep tender Soft-bills in cages 

 in good health during the winter months, some amount of 

 warmth and a regular temperature are necessary. T have 

 heard Nightingales singing in Aviaries with the water frozen; 

 the comparison between aviary kept and birds kept in 

 cages is obvious. In the former they can enjoy plenty of 

 exiercise, 'whereas in the latter, room is restricted, and the birds 

 not so active; hence they are more susceptible to climatic 

 changes. I believe in maintaining during the day-time of the 

 winter months an average temperature of 60 degrees F.; 

 during the night it may go down to 50 degrees F., and the 

 birds wMU l)e all the better foi' it, as, when roosting, they 

 tuck their heads under their wing, and their own respiration 

 keeps their body warm by circulating warm air round it. It 

 is in the day time, Avhen at rest, that they need a comfortable, 

 warm room. How to get this even temperature has been a 

 vexed question, land a trouble for years with me, and I have 

 spent a lot of time and labour on it. Oil stoves, gas stoves, 

 and hot -water apparatus are things of the past, they all have 

 their disadvantages; either it is the fumes, or when the boiler 

 is placed in an adjacent room, not sufTicient heat is developed, 

 or the air of the room gets too dry and dries up the food, or 

 they fail to act when mostly iieeded, say on a cold day in 

 .lanuary. However, I think I have now solved the difficulty, 

 and hit upon the right thing, and that is an anthracite stove, 

 similar to a greenhouse Tortoise stove. There are no fumes 

 and the heat can be regulated to a nicety. It burns night 

 and day, requires attention only twice a day, and consumes 



