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I cannot keep my Cardinals in good condition. After I have had

them a few months they begin to get shabby. I give them one meal-worm

each about once a fortnight, but fear to give them more as I understand

that they are apt to cause fits. They also have plenty of spray millet,

beside white millet and canary seed.


Is there any cure for baldness in birds ? Waxbills seem specially liable

to it. I notice that perhaps one in twenty recovers, but the large majority

are hopelessly ruined if they' once become bald.


Yours truly,


Septimus Perkins.



The following reply has been sent to Air. Perkins :—


1. —Zebra finches will readily nest and lay eggs in a cage, but seldom

succeed in rearing any young. Tike almost all birds (except domesticated

species) they very much dislike being observed during their breeding

operations, and in a cage they cannot select a sufficiently retired spot to

suit their taste. The consequence is that sooner or later the nests are

deserted. In an aviary they will breed freely.


2. —The egg and ants’ eggs are the only parts of the food which are

of any use to insectivorous birds. No prepared food is equal to fresh food

made daily. A food made of equal parts of grated hard-boiled egg, bread

crumbs and ants’ eggs, with a little preserved yolk added, would be much

better than what y'ou are using.


3. —Feed your Cardinals on canary seed with a little hemp occasionally',

give a couple of meal-worms and a little egg-food 011 alternate days, and

plenty of fruit (apple is the best). If kept in a small cage with fine wire,

Cardinals are very apt, if at all wild, to fray and cut their feathers against

the wires. It is better to keep them in a large box-cage with wires only in

front.



188, Fare’s Court Road, S.W.


Dear Sir, —Should Gouldian Finches be kept warm ? After keep¬

ing mine in good health for two years, one had a growth on the beak like

an ant’s egg, which I touched with Homocea by Dr. Greene’s advice. It

has fallen off, but the beak is scaly'. Otherwise the bird is in good health

and it eats well.


Yours truly, D. Deeweeyn.


The following reply has been sent to Aliss Llewelyn :


In spite of all that has been said to the contrary', the Gouldian Finch

is undoubtedly' a delicate bird, and very susceptible to cold. If it be prac¬

ticable the temperature of the bird-room in which Gouldian Finches

are kept should not fall below 50 degrees, and if 60 degrees can be main¬

tained, so much the better. The fact that some people have succeeded in

keeping this bird alive at a very low temperature, is no proof that such

treatment is otherwise than hazardous and mistaken. It is a restless bird,

and if kept in a cage the cage should be a large one. Give as great a variety

of food as possible — a little soft food — cuttle-bone — turfs (excepting in frosty

weather)—flowering grass—and, occasionally, a very' small quantity of inga

seed. But some Gouldians will touch nothing besides the two kinds of

millet seed.



