1 86 Parrots &§* Parakeets 



picked in the country from May or June until the 

 autumn. 



If the garden is a large one, a small plot can be 

 set aside especially for -aviary use. Chickweed and 

 groundsell are pounced upon by every bird, and it is 

 a pretty sight to see twenty or thirty brilliantly- 

 coloured birds scrambling about for the especial salad 

 that they love. The yellow of saffron finches, the 

 scarlet of king parrots, the vivid emerald green of 

 nimble budgerigars, the splendid crimson and violet 

 of the pennants, the blood-red patches of the crimson- 

 wings, the more sombre grey and white of the 

 cockateels with their rouged cheeks on primrose 

 heads, the lovely blue of the robins from America, 

 who have especially darted down with plaintive notes 

 after a mealworm, the flaring red of the Virginian 

 nightingales — all these, and many others in a choice 

 collection, form a picture of beauty which is ever a joy. 



A saucer of fresh white bread, soaked in milk and 

 squeezed out fairly dry, is much appreciated, and 

 many parakeets will take mealworms with avidity. 



Grey parrots, Amazons, macaws, and cockatoos are 

 very fond of sweetened tea ; neither does it seem to do 

 them any harm, to judge by the condition of my forty- 

 five year old grey — as I believe his age to be — who has 

 always had a liberal drink of this sort at five o'clock. 



That birds are always dying, like everything else, 

 is true ; but with attention to diet, with personal care 

 to details, and common sense upon thoughtfulness, 

 there is no necessity for their dying before their 

 appointed time. 



