Miscellaneous. 



stands, to prevent their climbing, or by securely covering my 

 birds during the night time, I have managed to prevent them 

 from obtaining food and intruding in my cages. In the next 

 place I regaled them with a little provender, prepared expressly 

 for their use, which consisted of grain prepared after this 

 fashion: Get a pennyworth of oxalic acid, or sugar of lead, 

 obtainable from any chemist, and put it in an earthenware 

 vessel of any kind that is of no value; pour over this about 

 a quart of boiling water. As soon as the powder is all dis- 

 solved, throw in a few handfuls of wheat, oats, or barley. 

 Stir it up with a stick, and afterwards let it stand for twenty- 

 four hours in a warm place; then pour off the liquid into a 

 drain, or ash pit, or similar place, where it can do no harm. 

 Lastly, dry the grain at a slow fire, and it will be ready for use. 

 It should be sprinkled all about the bird room or place which 

 the little brutes are known to frequent most ; but, if you keep 

 pigeons or fowls about your residence, you must exercise great 

 caution in using it ; and after you are led to believe that the 

 mice are all destroyed, or nearly so, search out their runs 

 and pour a quantity of gas or coal tar into them; brealr up 

 a few old glass bottles, and force in as much of the broken 

 glass as you can ; having done this, fasten up the entrance to 

 the holes securely from the outside. All the poisoned grain 

 unconsumed should be carefully gathered up and destroyed, 

 either by being burnt or buried. 



KEEPING OUT MICE. If you are troubled with mice, they 

 will probably come through the skirting boards, or in the 

 vicinity of them. Place a stout lath, edge up, and nail it 

 to the skirting or floor. You must likewise nail a stout lath 

 between the stencils of the bird-room door, as close to tie door 

 when it is shut as it can be got, and upon the opposite side to 

 that on which it opens, for I have found on more than one 

 occasion that this has been their only means of access to the 

 room. 



MICE DESTROYING EGGS. It very rarely happens that mice 

 have the temerity to attack birds unless they are exceedingly 

 voracious and the birds are weakly or invalids ; but they will 



