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branches, or even dead trees left in the garden, will nearly always attract

one or the other. The wrynecks alwaj-s like a dead willow better than any

other tree. If there is a pond, waterhens are sure to know of it, for they

are great travellers, especially at night; and a pair are almost certain to

take possession of it if there are one or two bushes on the bank with boughs

just touching the water, so that they may form a basis for the floating

nest. But the birds most wanted in a garden are all those warblers which

come to us during the spring and summer. They are the most useful, for

they are exclusively insect-eaters, and the most charming, for, except the

chiff-chaff, they all sing sweetly. They can be won over with ease, for they

come to us on purpose to nest; and every cock-bird that arrives selects

some pleasant spot where his mate, when he has won her by out-singing

his rivals, can build her nest. The redstart, the most beautiful of them all,

will nest in the boxes; the black-cap and garden-warbler, the best songsters

after the nightingale, are very fond of bramble bushes, and a few long

runners planted in a corner of a shrubbery will soon find a tenant. The

nightingales are harder to entice, for they insist on thicker covert, if

possible in the neighbourhood of oak trees, with the dead leaves of which

the nest is always finished ; but they may be invited by keeping a piece of

coppice or cliimp of shrubs cut low, and so forcing them to grow close and

bushy. It is by no means necessary that the spot shall be a retired one, for

small birds during the nesting season are almost indifferent to man. The

writer knew of a nightingale which nested in a window-box, and has found

many nests within a few feet of a path. Only one precaution need be

observed—the birds must not be frequently disturbed, nor the eggs

handled.”



AVICULTURAL SMALL-TALK.



In the “Small-Talk” for February, aviculturists were warned against

feeding Alario Finches on millet, and last month, in Mr. Fillmer’s article on

the species, this warning was repeated. It must not, however, be imagined

that millet-seed is in itself injurious to these birds, but merely that having

acquired a taste for it they frequently eat it in preference to more

nourishing seeds. Dr. Butler possesses a male Alario Finch which has

lived in one of his aviaries for nearly nine years, and has always had access

to an unlimited supply of millet; so that it does not invariably bring about

their untimely death. Nevertheless, we believe that Dr. Butler’s bird is

the exception which proves the rule, and that the experience of most

aviculturists who have kept Alario Finches with Waxbills and other millet

eating birds is that they seldom live for more than a }'ear or two.



The Chinese Quail is a bird which ought to become popular. The

male is decidedly pretty, and thej 7 are most inoffensive little creatures, and

apparently very hardy. Living, as they do, entirely on the floor of the

aviary, they are almost unnoticed by the other occupants, and thus while

they increase the population of the aviary they do not make it more

crowded. They speedily become very tame.



The late Mr. Erskine Allon was to have contributed an article on the

Grej 7 Singing Finch to our “ Friugillinae ” series. He had bred the species



