Maroh SO, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AKD COTTAQK GARDENER. 



2G1 



the cure. Just as a stream that crosses a road, triokhng from 

 one ditch to another, may bo seen full of small birds— Sparrows, 

 Robins, and Fmohes, all engaged in thorough bathing, so those 

 birds that do not wash take to dust. There are diilicultiea in 

 poultry-keeping that were unknown in past years. Take, for 

 instance, that which was christened by one of our oldest poultry 

 judges and breeders as " elephantiasis." Who is there keeping 

 poultry on a large scale who is not plagued with it ? f '™^ 

 otherwise faultless look as if their legs were coated with the 

 roughest of oyster shells. Take, again, the abominable habit 

 of feather-eating. It is becoming the bane of many yards. We 

 cannot help asking ourselves, What is the origin of these things? 

 It leads us back many years. Poultry was formerly kept in the 

 home counties— Kent, Surrey, and Sussex— for the supply of 

 the London markets. It was always at liberty, and all fowls 

 were reared naturally. Then the subject grew into importance, 

 and everyone took to keeping it. Shows were instituted. Large 

 prices were realised. Those with room for one breed kept four. 

 Queries sprang from all quarters asking advice, and above all 

 seeking to know by what means a pen 18 feet square might be 

 made to do the work of a ruu of 10 acres. Much has been done ; 

 but there remains always the Nemesis— if unnatural food and 

 treatment are adopted, then unnatural disease will appear. 

 They have done so, what is the remedy ? 



It must be recollected that we breed our fowls out of due 

 course and in an artificial state. Our aim must then be to sup- 

 ply them as nearly as possible with that they get in a state of 

 nature. Fresh earth in which they may scratch and find the 

 numberless atoms invisible to us, but which they eagerly pick 

 up. They must have green food. The weeds and refuse of a 

 garden may here be made useful. Fowls, like human beings, 

 want not only food but amusement. Let a barrowload of garden 

 refuse and sweepings be thrown into the middle of a limited 

 run. Every bird will go to work. They will scratch it all over 

 the place, and will find not only food but medicine if they re- 

 quire it. This employment keeps them out of mischief, and the 

 rubbish is none the worse for manure after they have analysed 

 it. Do not use any food to induce fowls to lay. Use no con- 

 centrated or stimulating foods. Do not overfeed. Fowls are 

 subject to the same disorders arising from improper diet as 

 human beings, and where the natural appetite is destroyed an 

 unnatural craving takes its place. Do not give much food at a 

 time. So fir as may be let your birds feed as Pheasants and 

 Partridges do ; let them seek their food and pick it a grain at 

 a time. Where you find you have one breed more than you can 

 keep well, do away with it. 



Like ourselves, you will have to put your chickens out. Choose 

 them if you can a sheltered spot. Let the front of the rip be 

 securely fastened at night with a board in front. Spite of the 

 wind let the rip face the east, and when the morning sun shines 

 let them have the full benefit of it. In the management of your 

 poultry study Nature more than men or books, and when (as 

 you assuredly will) you have learned from her follow her teach- 

 ing implicitly, and you will find it the road to success. — Don. 



Egg in Egg. — A pullet in my possession laid a large egg 

 weighing about i ozs., which on being opened was found to 

 contain another ordinary-sized egg with the shell quite perfect ; 

 the large egg in which the smaller one was enclosed being all 

 white with no yolk, while the smaller one had the yolk and 

 white of an ordinary size. Has this often occurred, or has any- 

 thing of the kind ever come under your notice ? — A SuESCRrBEB. 



[It is not uncommon for a small egg perfectly shelled to be 

 found within a large egg, but_it is unusual for the small egg to 

 contain the yolk.] 



CAGE BIRDS AND THE FOOD THEY EAT. 



No. 2. 



My former article ended with the words "the use of canary 

 Beed," respecting which Mr. Hervieux, in his work published 

 more than a century and a half ago, seemed to attach little im- 

 portance to the use of it compared to other kinds ; for ho says, 

 '* I have only a little pinch given them sometimes," and he 

 likewise asserts that "many curious persons never give their 

 birds any of it." 



Now, so far as the use or utility of canary seed is concerned, 

 I must say that for more than a quarter of a century I have from 

 time to time, when they were at about the ages of five or six 

 weeks old, weaned my young broods of Canaries from egg and 

 other soft food with a greater certainty of success with the entire 

 use of canary seed than I ever could when using either rape- 

 Beed or hempseed. The two latter seeds, from their rich and 

 oily constituents, had a tendency to disorder the digestions 

 of the birds or turn them " soft," which term is understood by 

 the fancy. Thus my experience has induced me to regard canary 

 seed as the staple food for bringing youug birds to maturity. 



Mr. Hervieux says rapeseed is the " most necessary seed for 

 feeding Canary birds." But there is a danger attending the use 

 of rapeseed unless the proper sort is obtained, which is smaller 



and of a lighter or purple tint, and sweeter compared to many 

 kinds of mixed seeds sold as bird rapeseed. Millet seed next 

 claims the writer's attention, for he says that three kinds of 

 seeds— rape, millet, and hemp— are " absolutely necessary, espe- 

 cially the two first of them, so that they [Canaries] may live 

 very well without the others, which are not proper for them, 

 otherwise than to recover their stomach when they have lost it, 

 or to help them in some distempers " spoken of in his treatise. 

 Remarking further upon the three kinds of seeds above named 

 he says they " are to Canary birds as bread, wine, and flesh are 

 to men ; for a man who has those three sorts of sustenance may 

 live long and in health without the help of any others which 

 are called the dainties of life, and which often rather impair 

 than preserve health." It is evident that the writer believed in 

 the uses of wine and was no vegetarian. But I will quote the 

 other kinds of seeds Mr. Hervieux names as of service to Canaries 

 and other small cage birds. 



" Pink Seed. — The best comes from Strasburp, as has been 

 found by experience, that which grows about Paris losing its 

 taste. It blossoms about May and .June. Its quality is astrin- 

 gent, and therefore it is given to Canary birds that are loose ; 

 the taste of it is sweetish. Take heed when you buy this seed 

 that they do not instead of it give you poppy seed, which is very 

 like it, and will infallibly kill your Canary birds. All the differ- 

 ence is that poppy seed is blackish and the other grey." Fanciers 

 will recognise the seed known by them as mawseed as being 

 none other than "pink seed." 



" Lettice seed is well known as well as the lettice. It is flat, 

 long, and of a bright grey. Its quality is cooling, wherefore it 

 is now and then given to Canary birds to purge them." 



" Silverweed [Tansy seed] is a plant whose leaves are like 

 those of coriander, but somewhat more oily, and the stem is 

 like that of rue. It is called Silverweed because the leaf is 

 white, but the seed is red and very small. In Latin it is called 

 Thalictrum. Its quality is to bind the Canary birds that can 

 eat it, which many of them will not." It is put to other uses 

 not spoken of here. 



" Plantan seed comes from a plant of the same name, which 

 grows like an ear of wheat and is small and blackish. Its quality 

 is nourishing and warming, but it is very seldom given to 

 Canary birds." 



The before-mentioned seeds are all Mr. Hervieux names, 

 which is somewhat surprising considering the utility of flaxseed 

 to many small cage birds, especially Goldfinches and Linnets. 

 Like the plantain seed there are others which grow wild and 

 may be given with beneficial effects to birds — such, for instance, 

 as shepherd's purse and thistle seed, which latter sort Goldfinches 

 are particularly fond of. At the end of the summer, or at the 

 particular period of the ripening of thistle seed, numerous Gold- 

 finches may be found diving their suitably-formed beaks into 

 the heads of the thistle in the localities where it grows. 



The high price canary seed has realised for some time past 

 must at the commencement of the canary-seed panic have placed 

 many fanciers at their wit's end to find a substitute for it. None 

 better could have been found than the use of millet, which par- 

 takes more of the properties of canary seed than any other kind. 

 But our forefathers must also have been subject to the ups and 

 downs of the seed market. At the time Mr. Hervieux wrote his 

 book he names the period as being a " dear year" for seeds ; 

 and two important considerations appear to have been that of 

 the quality and value of the seeds given to birds, and likewise 

 that they should be well " fanned and cleansed before they are 

 used, because they are generally very foul and full of little stones 

 and dust." This is a necessary precaution to take, and fanciers 

 should well sieve their seed before giving it to the birds. 



'The writer further states, " The price of each sort alters every 

 year according to the plenty or scarcity of it. What I shall set 

 down here is rather to give curious persons some notion of the 

 value of the several seeds," and then names the prices for which 

 they were then sold as follows — " A boisseau of rapeseed, which 

 is about a peck and a half English, or 20 lbs. weight, 45 sols; 

 a boisseau of millet, 30 sols; hemp, 22 sols ; a litron of canary, 

 being somewhat above a pint English, 3 sols C deniers ; a litron 

 of pink seed, 12 sols ; lettice seed, 9 sols ; silverweed seed, 

 28 sols ; plantan seed, 15 sols." In conclusion Mr. Hervieux 

 says, "By what I have said you may perceive that a litron, or 

 pint of the last five sorts of seeds, will serve you as long as a 

 boisseau or peck of the three first [rape, millet, and hemp] 

 being given to the birds only in cases of absolute necessity. 

 There are also many curious persona who never make use of all 

 the sorts of seeds I have mentioned, which did not, however, 

 divert me from setting them down for the satisfaction of those 

 who do or may hereafter use them." — Geo. J. Babnesby. 



THE SEVERITY OF THE SEASON. 

 Notice has already been taken in the Journal of the pro- 

 tracted unfavourable weather for bees. Both February and 

 March this year have been filled or fully taken np with unpro- 

 pitious weather. During these months the bees at Sale have 

 been kept indoors by weather unusually and excessively cold 



