4 Practicai, Bird-Keeping. 



aud sit than the Waxbills but are so nervous that with the least 

 alarm they spring up from the nest, kicking their eggs right and 

 left in their excitement. 



According to the late Dr. Karl Russ the Waxbills require 

 living ants' cocoons when feeding their young, but in a large 

 well-grown shrubby outdoor aviary I suspect they get a sufficient 

 quantity oftinj'^ insects to meet the requirements of their progeny. 



The Cardinals will build in an indoor aviary and also lay, 

 though they do not always do so in the nests they have constructed, 

 but often smash their eggs by dropping them from a l)rancli on 

 to the ^oor ; in an outdoor aviarj', however, thej'^ succeed far 

 better, only they require abundant living insect food from the 

 day that the young break the shell until about a fortnight after 

 they leave the nest, and the quantity which each youngster eats 

 in a day is generally so considerable that the supply fails and the 

 young are thrown out of the nest, perhaps one alone being 

 retained by its parents. 



Finches always feed their 3-oung at first from the crop, 

 but the more insectivorous kinds begin to feed with crushed or 

 broken up insects when the young are only a few days old, 

 though even then they sometimes give them the food in a partly 

 digested condition : the 3'-oung thus get triturated seeds, green 

 food and insects combined in a moist and easily assimilated 

 form: some of the larger finches also give broken-up earth- 

 worms, a repulsive looking article of food which I have seen the 

 Pine Grosbeak devour greedil3\ 



I must now say a few words respecting the seeds which I 

 have found most suitable for the commoner kinds of finches. 

 For the more typical Buntings, Chaffinches and Sparrows a mix- 

 ture of Canarj', white millet, German rape, hemp, oats and per- 

 haps a pinch of linseed occasionalh', serves admirably; but for 

 the Cardinals I have found canary, oats and hemp most suitable 

 with a little apple or other fruit when they will accept it ; some- 

 times the}' will not touch fruit. 



The Serins and our English Linnet with its allies do well 

 upon canary, white millet and a little German rape or, when 

 moulting, a pinch of hemp: the\' all delight in green food, for 



