356 Caxak/es and Cage-Birds. 



healthy bird, with sufficient opportunities to bathe, will keep himself quite free from insects. 

 If insects appear, sprinkling a little insect powder on the skin, between the roots of the 

 feathers, and thoroughly cleansing the cage, will at once stop the plague, if care be taken 

 simultaneously to improve the bird's health by suitable and generous diet. 



It is useful to remember that Australians are our antipodes, that the Australian summer — 

 i.e., the breeding-time — corresponds to our winter season, and that birds brought from Australia 

 to Europe do not change their moulting and breeding time to suit our European seasons, 

 except in the second or third generation, when bred under European skies. Australian 

 and some other foreign birds will breed in winter, if food and surroundings are favourable, 

 and I have reared many broods successfully between November and March. In keeping 

 and breeding foreign birds the temperature is not so great an obstacle as our long nights. 

 Birds do not feed in the dark; this therefore means fifteen or sixteen hours' fast, or, in other 

 words, an impossible existence for young or weak birds. I formerly lost many foreign Finches 

 during a winter, but now keep small lamps burning during the long winter nights. These are 

 hung opposite the cages, and a reflector is so arranged that the nooks and corners of the aviary 

 are shaded, the light being thrown on the food-dishes. If a bird wakes up hungry in the dark, 

 he can find his way to the food ; and the practical result was that I lost fewer birds in winter 

 than at any other time of the year, and that I had the pleasure of seeing broods of foreign 

 birds leaving their nest at Christmas. 



A great and common mistake, against which all amateur breeders should be warned, is the 

 keeping of many varieties of birds in one cage, however large that cage may be. The birds are 

 certain to disturb each other, and the separation of species cannot be too much recommended. 

 Birds have as much individuality as other and larger animals. I have kept birds whose species 

 is known for their gentleness, but which had to be removed from the aviary on account of their 

 individually quarrelsome disposition ; while others reputed to be unbearably combative happened 

 to be individually very gentle. Let me especially warn the reader against the Red Cardinal, or 

 Virginian Nightingale, the Red-headed Cardinal, and the American Mocking-bird — all valuable 

 birds in a cage, but if introduced into an aviary, sooner or later a small bird will be the victim 

 of their strong beaks and vicious tastes, and be found one day minus eyes and brain. 



NEST-BOXES AND NESTING MATERIALS. 

 Foreign Finches build their nests, some in bushes or trees in the aviary, whilst most prefer 

 boxes or some kind of solid basis for the construction of their family residence. Mr. Hawkins' 

 improved open Canary-nest, shown in Fig. "jj, affords a secure and solid nest-bottom. The 

 well-known French artificial nests, made of wire and lambswool, with a gay, conical, calico roof, 

 look pretty, but are utterly useless. The globular rush nests, as shown in Fig. 78, harbour 

 insects, and teach the birds the habit of sitting all night and half the day in the nest, whilst 

 a perch might be a much more healthy abode for them. These rush nests should therefore 

 be used with much discrimination, and are only recommended for small birds when just 

 arrived from hot climates with imperfect plumage, and are in want of extra warmth. For 

 breeding I find nothing better than the common little wooden cage in which German Canaries 

 are hawked about in the streets. These I purchase for a few halfpence, and soak in boiling 

 water until perfectly clean, remove the little earthenware pot and the perches, and take out 

 two or three of the wooden bars to give the birds just room to get freely in and out, as 

 shown in Fig. 79. Such a small cage is soon filled with fibre, feathers, &c., by birds seriously 

 intent on nesting ; is easily fi.xed anywhere, easily removed, and easily defended by breeding 



