Breeding and Management. 89 



Another consideration is that bird-rooms, wherever situated, 

 are harbours for moths, who patronise them very extensively, 

 and enjoy their precincts exceedingly. 



LATE BREEDING. Cease breeding as soon after the middle 

 of August as possible, or even earlier ; for when that advanced 

 period of the year has arrived it is quite time the old birds 

 were commencing to moult; late moulting is exceedingly ob- 

 jectionable, and very detrimental to the health of birds, and 

 ought, therefore, by all means to be avoided. "When any of 

 my hens lay after the 10th of August I never permit them to 

 sit. I throw their eggs out, and as soon as their last broods 

 can cater for themselves I remove the mothers into a large 

 flight cage or aviary; but before doing so I pull their tails 

 out, which appears to encourage or promote the process of 

 moulting. If the hens commence to breed in the early part 

 of April as they ought to do, if in blooming health and 

 condition or even, sometimes, at the latter end of March, 

 there is ample time to obtain four nests of eggs from each 

 hen, which is quite as many as it is prudent to take in one 

 season. For a hen to lay too much is weakening and injurious 

 to her constitution, thereby paving the way for disorder, which 

 is almost the inevitable result. Ailments thus engendered, and 

 not discovered until too late, are frequently attributed to the 

 moult, whereas the weakness caused by excessive laying is so 

 enfeebling that the constitution is completely undermined, 

 and the moult which is at all times an eventful period in 

 the life of a bird establishes the activity of disease. 



INCUBATION. There are probably few subjects less under, 

 stood that is, from a scientific point of view than incubation. 

 The reason of this arises from a variety of causes, one of which, 

 doubtless, is that few fanciers care to destroy a fertile egg, 

 as there is a feeling that it might develop into a prodigy. 

 Much that is valuable and interesting might be learnt from 

 a few careful experiments. 



I have experimentalised a little in this direction, and have 

 discovered that eggs can be removed the day prior to that 



