13° Practical Bird-Keeping, 



recommended for Tanagers — in fact, the Blue-cheeked is one of 

 the easiest soft-bills, (the term is used technically, not literally, 

 as all Barbets bite like fiends) one can keep; and I fancy that 

 my friend the Coppersmith started the story. He is the com- 

 monest of Barbets, plying his miniature gong in the street trees 

 in Calcutta ; yet I was told he could not be kept. I thought the 

 reason was that satoo, the standard soft-billed food, did not suit 

 him, and I found that adult birds could be meated off, or rather 

 " fruited off" on banana, and live on that alone; young birds 

 could also be reared on this simple diet, and I found that at any 

 rate when reared, bread-and-milk could be consumed with im- 

 punity. Since then, a few have reached England, and, though 

 undoubtedly delicate compared with others, this charming Bar- 

 bet is evidently not the impossible subject our native dealers 

 supposed. Small blame to them — they were probably feeding 

 birds on saloo in the time of Alexander's invasion, and I was not 

 surprised that my success did not alter their methods — should 

 the aviculture of ages be upset by a mushroom European? I, 

 however, profited by the lesson and by the similar one I learnt in 

 connection with the Cotton Teal {Netlapus coroniandelia7iiis) 

 another impossible bird (of which I sent the first specimens 

 home) and have since steadfastly refused to believe in the im- 

 possibility of keeping any bird. The Asiatic Barbets, b}' the 

 way, are far more purely fruit-eaters and more unsociable than 

 the two African species I have seen. 



I have had some most interesting experiences with Cuckoos, 

 an interesting group which are grossly neglected as a rule. The 

 easiest of all is the Koel {^Eiidynamis honorata), which is a 

 favourite cage- bird in Calcutta, and should be represented in 

 any scientific collection. Being, unlike most Cuckoos, a fruit- 

 eater, it is easily catered for. It is parasitic on crows, and a pair 

 of tame jackdaws or magpies should make good fosterers for it. 

 Being so common, and having been exhibited at home, I did not 

 trouble about it, but more "than once reared specimens of that 

 fine non-parasitic cuckoo the Indian Coucal {Cenlropiis jnfipennis) 

 locally known as the Crow-pheasant, a name much apter than it 

 sounds. In habits and general form this species resembles a 

 magpie, and can be reared on cut-up raw meat, snails, and cock- 



