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Notes for the Month .



worm and ensure a proper mixed diet. Another common cause of

failure to nest is the absence of proper nesting accommodation, or

perhaps the absence of proper material to build the nest with.

One is almost a corollary of the other. You wouldn’t expect

budgerigars to nest in the fork of a tree, nor a chaffinch to nest in a

barrel. Considering the weird ideas on the subject some people

have it is a wonder, and no small credit to the birds, that they nest

at all. But perhaps what is even of more importance is the proper

supply of nesting material. In a natural garden aviary, another

well-worn avicultural expression, they will probably find much of

what they want. But in a “mixed” series such things as tow,

ravelled string, cocoa-nut fibre, a handful of “ meadow hay,” not

inferior hay made from rye grass, which is too stiff and unyielding,

but fine meadow hay, bast or raffia cut up into lengths, fine twigs

for birds of the cardinal and sparrow class, and, finally, those little

packets of moss and horse-hair may be added to the aviary, but be

sure to tie the cotton, by which it is meant to be suspended, quite

short. On more than one occasion one has seen birds entangled and

eventually killed by these cotton threads. That is why the bast

should he cut in lengths. Cases have occurred where a bird has

been hanged by the neck, until he was dead, by bast. A member,

MissChawner, recommended paper shavings for sugar birds. If you

are anxious to go in for breeding or trying to breed British birds get

a few newly-made nests of the species you are trying to breed and

tear it to pieces in the aviary. Many sugar birds use spiders’ webs

as the foundation of their nests. Lambs’ wool is a very good sub¬

stitute for spiders’ web. Tow is good but too short and flimsy. A

piece of rope unravelled is far better. Horse-hair is another thing

birds, who suspend their nests, like to get hold of. Failing all else,

sometimes an old nest from the hedgerow may be fixed in a shrub

in the aviary and occasionally some birds will take to that.


We must leave nesting materials and pass on to other causes

of non-reproduction. Certainly one of the most insidious causes is

overcrowding, particularly with interfering and pugnacious birds.

Not always large birds, but, often, they are mere impudent scraps

such as the hibfinch, or worse still, in that respect, the common

zebra finch. And the little wretches are fearfully difficult to detect,



