II



are of metal; and the washing saucer is placed on the floor, on a large tray.

A thermometer reports the temperature, and the lowest degree of cold

touched during the night.


For a good part of the year, I keep a hurricane lamp burning in the

bird-room all through the night. This practice has much to be said in its

favour. I am in London, and am shut in by houses, and the bird-room is

dark ; and the evenings so rapidly close in on a dull day that my birds used

often to go to roost before their supper was served: for fresh food for the

Soft Bills, and fresh water, are always given at least twice every day. Now

they have grown accustomed to the light, most of them will feed to a much

later hour than they were able to do formerly ; and they can get to their

food betimes in the morning, fog or no fog. And the lamp is invaluable in

a room where migratory birds are kept. Instead of knocking themselves

about, and knocking other birds off their perches, as they used to do, they

now fly round and round the room until they have had enough of it, and

then quietly compose themselves to sleep as if nothing had happened ;

and by the time I go to bed everything is quiet. Of course, I burn a much

stronger light, two lamps in fact, during the earlier part of the dark

evenings, a much softer light prevailing during the night. A panic in a

bird-room in which there is a light is a very unlikely occuri'ence, and even

if such a thing should happen little or no mischief would befall the inmates.


I do not believe in the wisdom of keeping delicate Foreign birds

through an English winter without artificial heat. I am well aware that

many Foreign birds can stand a great deal of cold; but not many of them

can do so with impunity, although the effects may not immediately be

apparent. The longer I keep birds, the more I believe in the wisdom of

keeping them warm, dry, and comfortable. For some years, I warmed my

bird-room with a gas fire ; but the expense was so considerable that the gas

had to give way to the less convenient, but less costly, paraffin. I place a

paraffin stove between the window and the fire-place, and near to the latter,

cover it with a ware extinguisher-like guard: and on the top of the

latter I place a pan of water for evaporation purposes. The lamp, also,

lends its help in warming the room. But I must again press upon you the

importance of having the room well ventilated, but without draughts,

especially during the winter months.


If all the cages be mounted on stands as I have suggested, mice

cannot do much harm. Nevertheless, they are highly objectionable tenants,

and should be evicted or otherwise disposed of. Traps will catch a few,

now and then, but are practically of no nse. I allow one hole to be always

open, their favourite hole. Down this I drop a piece of bread and butter,

well smeared over with phosphor paste, taking great care that none of the

paste is left outside. The mice disappear: sometimes a feeble outbreak of

the attack takes place in a month or two, but a second dose frees me of

them for from twelve to eighteen months. On the morning following the

laj'ing down of the poison, I promptly remove any dead mice I may find ;

and those which die beneath the flooring seem to dr) 7 up, and do not smell.

I once found such an one, as perfect and dry as a mummy.


In some particulars, I have not described my bird-room just as it is,

but rather as it should be, so that this little sketch of it may be the more

useful to my readers. But they will please bear in mind that circumstances

alter cases, and that what is best for one room may not be the best in

another ; and that a different class of birds may require various modifica¬

tions of various details.



NESTING OF THE CUBA FINCH.


At the beginning of June in this year a pair of Cuba finches, which I

was keeping at the time in an open wire cage, 3ft. by 2ft. began to build a

.nest in a cocoa nut husk hanging in a corner of their dwelling, the

material used was soft hay, and with this they completely lined the hollow

and blocked up the mouth of the nest. The hen began to sit on June 17th,



