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from a gentleman in France (Sarthe), a pair hatched in his aviary in 1S93.

He keeps his birds, he wrote me, all the year round, in a garden-aviary, and

in winter simply shuts, at night, the door of the covered part where they

sleep. I believe it, for the hen he sent me had lost the tip of two toes from

frost-bite. Fast year, I bought another pair from him in the same state;

one had lost three nails from the frost-bite again. In 1889, he obtained,

he wrote me, 17 young in his garden aviary from one pair each of Black- and

Red-heads, and 12 in 1S93. I could mention several other instances where

Gouldians have been kept in this country, summer and winter, in outdoor

aviaries, and, as far as I know, on the usual seed and green food only.


Gouldians, to be able to stand such an amount of cold, must, of

course, be thoroughly acclimatized, or hatched in Europe ; but as most of

those offered for sale, by dealers especially, are imported, my objeft in asking

for a.11 article on their treatment, was in hope that it might assist in keeping

down the mortality, which is, doubtless, still very great with many who

purchase them. An acclimatized Gouldian is not a very difficult bird to

keep, but a newly-imported one, c'est autre-chose !


While writing, I should like to say a little about breeding Virginian

Cardinals, on which Mr. Fillmer gives an extensive article in the September

number of the Magazine. From his remarks, I have succeeded with a

brood this season about as far as Mr. John Sergeant did with his. Iliad

three hatched in July, quite at the commencement, from three eggs. They

fledged splendidly the first fortnight, but left the nest far too soon, before

they could hop property, much less fly, and perished one after the other

from cold at night. I saw, as soon as they left the nest, how things were

likely to end, and put them back several times, and as the nest was in a

box, reduced the size of the opening; it was of no avail, the}' w T ere out

again in a few minutes, with an apparent determination of stopping out.

A second nest of three, from three eggs also, followed in August, but they

were abandoned nearly as soon as hatched, the parents having come into

moult. I fed them on bread and milk, mealworms, gentles, scalded ants’

eggs, and the usual seed. Milk-sop is a splendid food for young Cardinals

and the parents feed freely with it, for the first week especially.


As regards the song of the Virginian Cardinal, it consists mostly, as

Mr. Fillmer says, of the repetition of one or two loud notes ; one of the

notes resembling the noise a chicken makes when it has lost its mamma ! It

is a fact that Virginian Cardinals sing at night. I have heard mine doing so

many times at ten or eleven o’clock. Hens sing, too,when the breeding season

is coming round; and, with my pair, a good row, lasting several days, has

often been the commencement of their matrimonial bliss: the cock

singing and chasing the hen, then the li en singing and chasing the cock ;

they arrange matters, though, amicably afterwards, and all the eggs get

fecundated. So far (4 years) I have not had a single clear egg. I keep my

pair in a mixed aviary containing birds from the tiny Waxbills upwards,

and, so far, not even in the breeding season, has any harm been done by

them. I have never had more than three eggs to a nest.


The Redrumps I wrote about in the August number, hatched the last

clutch of eggs and reared all the young — five. I have, therefore, had eleven

young, in all, this season, from the pair in the box-cage.


A. Savage, (Rouen).



