BREEDING AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT 51 



froth. When thoroughly mixed bake in an ordinary 

 small baking tin for one hour in a moderate oven. Be 

 careful it does not get burned. When one day old it will 

 be ready for use. 



" This cake will keep any reasonable time without turn- 

 ing sour or rancid. When giving it to the birds, crush it 

 very fine and mix a sprinkling of maw seed, and wet or 

 damp it to about the consistency of ordinary egg-food with a 

 a Uttle slightly diluted condensed milk. This will keep 

 two or three days without going sour. The birds are 

 particularly fond of this composition. Mine prefer it to 

 all other foods. I give an adequate supply of this food, 

 together with soaked seeds, lettuce, and watercress or 

 other green food three times a day, morning and evening 

 and mid-day." 



Separation During Incubation. 



A question that is often debated when fanciers meet is : 

 "Is it wise to leave the cock and hen together during 

 the period of incubation ? My answer is " Yes." I 

 have never practised any other method. It has always 

 seemed to me to be the right, reasonable, and most 

 natural thing to do. Yet there are some breeders who, 

 immediately the hen has gone to nest, remove the cock 

 bird, and only return him when the young are hatched. 



I have heard all kinds of stories about cock birds 

 pulhng nests out, smashing the eggs, worrying the hens, 

 and I don't know what else, but never once have I been 

 plagued with one of these unnatural fathers. That 

 such exist I know from the experiences of my friends, 

 and when such are met with provision has to be made 

 to prevent them from committing the damage they 

 might do. When double breeding cages are used all 

 that needs to be done is to run him into the spare com- 

 partment and put in the slide. If single breeders are 

 in use, then he must be placed in another cage in another 

 part of the room. 



Then there are cocks that will live comfortably and 

 happily with their spouses unt?l the youngsters come. 

 They then show themselves as cannibals and destroy 

 the young which they have helped to bring into the world. 

 These must be removed, once their character is declared, 



