79



CARDINAL GROSBEAKS.


BALDNESS.


Sir, —I have for some years past kept in my outdoor aviary (amongst

other birds) a pair of Virginian Nightingales. They have never nested, the

chief reason preventing them being, I think, that the hen bird loses her

head feathers, and seems to get generally out of condition. She keeps very

well all the winter, and recovers from the moult all right, but when spring

comes her head gets quite bald, and during the summer she appears mopy.


With regard to a lot of little Australian Waxbills I bought a short

time ago, a couple of pairs of which I gave to a lady, who kept them in a

cage together, one of them after a week or so got pecked about until it had

no feathers on its head. It seemed to like being pecked, putting its head

down for the purpose, and a few days later it was found dead in the bottom

of the cage. Is this the fault of the food ? They were fed on canary and

millet seeds and were given green food. The rest of the lot I purchased, I

put in my aviary, and they are all as healthy as possible.


I should like to know if you have ever been successful in rearing

Virginian Nightingales, and if so, under what treatment, and also as to the

baldness of the hen bird, and generally on the points raised in this letter.


Yours faithfully,


Harry L. Pike.



The following reply has been sent to M?\ Pike :—


The Virginian Nightingale or Cardinal Grosbeak will frequently nest

in captivity. An outdoor aviary is the most suitable place for experiments

in breeding this bird. It prefers the fork of a tree for a nesting place.

Mealworms must be supplied very sparingly or withheld altogether during

incubation, and while the young are small.


I have never bred this species—will some member who has been

successful in so doing kindly give the Society the benefit of his experience ?


You do not state how you feed your birds, but possibly the baldness

of the hen may be due either to an excess of animal food or to the want of

it. The staple diet should be canary seed, but a small quantity of sunflower

seed and occasionally some hemp seed should also be given. Millet seed,

paddy rice and maize may also be given for a change. A few mealworms

are decidedly beneficial, but never give more than two a day for each bird

—it is better, every alternate day, to substitute some egg for the mealworms,

the preserved egg answers well. Supply plenty of green food and fruit.


Probably the lady to whom you gave the Waxbills kept them in a

room which was hot in the day time and very cold at night—violent changes

of temperature are very trying to these tiny birds. Waxbills will often

survive many degrees of frost in an outdoor aviary, provided the}' be first

turned out of doors in the summer and are provided with snug sleeping

places. They generally keep in good plumage out of doors. I am not

certain what species you mean by “Australian Waxbills,” but if you refer to

Sydney Waxbills they are decidedly hardy birds.


Waxbills as a rule eat very little canary seed, but besides white millet

they should always have French millet—this maybe given either in the ear,

when it is called “Spray millet,” or in the ordinary form when it is most

absurdly called “ Indian millet.”


Horatio R. Fieemer.



RARE BIRDS.


Sir, —A Bittern was shot in the Island of Anglesey last January.


Hedeey Speed.



