THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 243 



the natural colour. Tou will Lave also the natural ways, and alto- 

 gether a pretty feathered bit of the wild nortliern* forests. It 

 requires hemp, rape, and pine or fir seeds, and, in the season, elder- 

 berries. A fresh ripe fir cone aftords it a rare treat, and to see it 

 pick out the seeds is very amusing. 



If you want another hard-billed bird, take the Redpole. But I 

 confess, it is not much of a bird. Probably I should never have kept 

 such a stupid little thing if a little nephew of mine had not shown 

 his first taste for sport by trapping them, and then horrifying me 

 by selling them. Having a young birdcatcher ia the family, I 

 was compelled to buy, but I never could be enraptured with a 

 redpole. 



Wlieu we enter upon the keeping of birds that require prepared 

 foods, we begin to experience the agonies of the aviary. It is easy 

 work, I know, to keep a thrush or a blackbird, or a skylark, but it 

 ia not easy to all alike, aad' no one should begin who is not pre- 

 pared to go ou, for it is dreadful injustice to heaven to treat a bird 

 unkindly. Tlie Thrush, Blackbird, and Skylark may, however, be 

 kept in the same house conveniently if they can be far separated, 

 for they are loud in their utterances. The paste which best suits 

 these birds is one compounded of stale bread soaked with boiled 

 milk, with twice as much of the finest barley-meal, well beaten 

 together. Many odd things answer for a change, as, for example, a 

 little grated cheese, a little soft fat from a boiled leg of mutton 

 pressed into a paste with meal, or grated carrot and bread soaked 

 in milk. For the lark, a little grated leather must be added to the 

 paste occasionally. As for myself, I will never again keep any of 

 these birds, for the trouble is more than the pleasure is worth, To 

 be sure, I am not shut up in a town, where the only bird music 

 must be derived from a wire cage. The thrushes so abound here, 

 that my husband says it is dangerous to walk about, because of the 

 risk of breaking one's neck by tumbling over them, and we have all 

 the birds that belong to the country, the nightingale not excepted. 

 The mention of the JVightingale reminds me to say, that this won- 

 derful songster, and its near relative, the Blackcap, are both most 

 difficult to keep. We have had our experiences, and our pleasure 

 and pains with these as with others, and heartily advise that only 

 those who have a peculiar gift in bird management should have 

 anything to do with them. 



You will think it strange, perhaps, that after setting aside so 

 many as undesirable, I should wind up by recommending as a house- 

 hold bird the Robin. Not one of the troublesome birds has amused 

 me so much, and we have had several robins. Be sure you begin 

 with a bird reared from the nest, or taken very young, and you must 

 pay a good price for it. Birds caught when mature never take to 

 impri^oiitneut kindly, and are miserable as long as they live, which, 

 generally speaking, is not long. Happily, the familiar redbreast will 

 eat almost anything. For a general food, the paste just now recom- 

 mended for larks will answer, but he likes cheese, scraps of tender 

 meat, and very small crumbs of bread, elderberries, minced fat free 

 of fibie, and, above all, meal-worms. Water he must have to drink, 



August. 



