340



Correspondence, Notes, etc.



Take care also that the bread is stale, but not sour; a bird in confinement

cannot digest new bread. The ants’ eggs should be mixed with soft food

before being given to the birds, so as to give them a chance of swelling; if

swallowed perfectly dry, they swell inside the bird, disarranging strong

species, and killing some of the more delicate ones. Moreover, you must

take care that the ants’ eggs be clean and good.


Parrish’s food is unsuitable at present. Healthy birds are better

without anything of that kind.


Give spiders, earwigs, cockroaches, woodlice, etc. (not mealworms

as long as other small creatures can be obtained), and fruit. Try also an

orange cut in halves, placed in a little earthenware (not metal) dish with the

face up.


Of course they will require protection in cold weather; and look out

for the moult.


Blue Thrushes have been and are nesting in Mr. St. Quintin’s aviaries

this summer. Reginald Phieeipps.



SOME NOTES ON THE LIOTHRIX.


Sir, —With regard to the sexes of this most charming of cage-birds,

I may say that my experience in India, like Mr. Astley’s in Italy, was that

in a lot containing both sexes it is easy enough to pick out the males by

the brighter colour, especially when the pairs are side by side. Here,

however, what with the paucity of males, the variability of the species, and

the disgusting state some dealers let their stock get into, it is not easy to be

certain, so that I agree with Dr. Butler that the voice test is the best.

Among a lot of about two dozen I had in Calcutta some time ago the few

with completely red bills were undoubtedly males ; but I have also seen

undoubted males with black at the base of the bill, and this does not

disappear with age. A poor, mostly out-of-conditioned lot which I picked

up in Rondon lately were nearly all clear red in the bill, but yet were

mostly hens as far as I could see. As these were simply dying off, I let

them go in the backyard of my lodgings, where there were a few trees, and,

to ni}^ delight, they proved good homers. The sickliest birds did not leave

at all, but four went off, via the trees, into the adjoining gardens, one,

which was the worst flier, coming back that night. The rest returned in a

day or two. Some more of the sickly ones died, and I sold some of the

better specimens, leaving one sore-eyed bird, which seems to have gone off

when he found himself alone. One bird came to grief by getting lost

behind some object in an outhouse where it was not found till too late, but

all the others came back regularly for days. As only one bird was able to

fly properly—most having broken flights—it says volumes for the

intelligence of the birds that they escaped cats. Sparrows did not seem to

give them any trouble, and I have seen the two species close together. As



