Keeping Cage-birds 9 
taken these birds will merely shift to an alternative site for 
their next attempt the following year and no amount of harrying 
seems to deter them from trying again and again to nest in cne 
of their three favourite spots—three is the usual number. But 
when gun and trap or worst of all poison is brought into play 
their days are numbered and the wanderer like myself on 
revisiting some wild spot finds the favourite nesting-places 
untenanted. 
I may mention that my views on the comparative damage 
done by the destruction of birds and the robbing of their nests 
are cordially endorsed by Mr. F. C. Selous, the famous hunter 
of big game and enthusiastic birdsnester. 
People have often asked me how, when, and why I acquired my 
love of birds and bird-life. The only reply I can give to this is 
that it is apparently a question of ‘ heredity.” 
My grandfather was devoted to birds and some of the earliest 
pictures of birds I can remember were drawn and coloured by him 
in the early years of the last century. My father inherited the same 
taste, but in his case it took the form of enthusiastic fondness for 
keeping cage-birds of all sorts. In this he excelled to a marked 
degree, for him no species was too delicate or too difficult to feed, 
and although, as with all cage-bird fanciers, his collection mostly 
consisted of Finches and Larks, he did not hesitate to keep and keep 
alive in health any soft-billed birds he took a fancy to. Blackcaps 
and Nightingales were numbered among those and [| can recall 
more than one Nightingale which he kept in beautiful song in 
a small cage, no mean achievement. To accomplish this, some 
natural food was necessary and this want was met by a liberal supply 
of meal-worms which habitually escaped in his room and it was 
generally believed that it was due to the requirements of the 
Nightingales that a peculiar breed of cockroach was introduced 
into our house. But my father’s great achievement in the keeping 
