94 



NOTES TO THE 



The following is a list of the birds collected, and which were 

 ready packed : 



100 Blackbirds 

 100 Thrushes 

 140 Hedgesparrows 

 100 Starlings 

 100 Linnets 



Total 



110 Goldfinches 

 180 Yellowlmmmers 

 100 Partridges 

 120 Redpoles 



1,050 



The birds were packed as follows : Starlings in four cages, 

 three feet long. Thrushes and blackbirds, in cages three feet long, 

 having four divisions, one bird in each division, and in all fifty 

 cages. Linnets, twelve in a cage of eighteen inches. Yellow- 

 hammers, twelve in a cage. Hedgesparrows, all in separate cages. 



I was informed by Mr. W. Barnes, of 145, Cannon-street, who 

 assisted in the collection, and found the necessary accommoda- 

 tion while being collected, that the food taken out consisted of 

 eighteen bushels of canary seed, hemp, flax, rape, buckwheat, 

 wheat, cracked maize, and mawseed ; Spratt's patent food, Ger- 

 man paste, flour for bread-making ; lard, treacle, and pea meal 

 for German paste, and four tons of sand. Thus it will be 

 seen that the commissariat of these birds is a matter of no 

 slight moment. The birds were all packed on board ship in a 

 house built on purpose, about midship, fourteen feet by twelve ; 

 there was a small separate house for the partridges, which are 

 nervous birds, and are apt to knock themselves about on the 

 least provocation. Mr. Bills, of course, went with the birds, and 

 this was quite a sufficient guarantee that every care and attention 

 would be shown to them. 



Mr. Barnes reports (Nov. 1875) the result of this experiment 

 as follows. Landed : 



Blackbirds and thrushes 



Hedgesparrows 



Starlings . 



Linnets . 



Goldfinches 



Yellow-hammers 



Partridges 



Redpoles . 



Total 



191 

 11 

 33 

 95 



110 



180 

 74 



120 



814 



My friend Mr. Cholmondeley, of Condover Hall, Shrewsbury, 

 is about to go himself to the West Indies to see if he cannot 

 bring humming-birds home to England alive. The difficulty is 

 to procure insect food for the voyage. Mr. Bartlett has sug- 

 gested that large numbers of earwigs should be scalded and 



