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food. The food which I here recommend is, therefore, simply

what I, in this year 1899, have found and believe to be the most

suitable—it may not be quite the same as what I should have

advised a few years ago, and perhaps next year I shall advocate

something different. I am afraid this sounds rather egotistical

and conceited—but I can’t help that.


For the purposes of my subject, it is necessary to classify

birds in a frankly unscientific fashion, and I propose to deal with

them in the following groups. (Only birds which are properly

cage-birds will be treated of.) (1) Small seed-eating birds.

(2) Doves. (3) Seed-eating Parrots and Parrakeets. (4) Fruit¬

er pollen-eating Parrots. (5) Fruit- or pollen-eating birds other

than Parrots. (6) Insectivorous birds. Of course some of these

groups overlap each other.


I.—SMALL SEED-EATING BIRDS.


This group comprises finches, grosbeaks, buntings, wax-

bills, grassfinch.es, mannikins, and weavers — in fact, all the

“ finches ” in the widest sense of the term. The feeding of all

these is simple, and it is not possible to go very far wrong.


Canary seed is the most generally useful of all seeds, and

all seed-eating birds may be supplied with it ad lib. It is,

unfortunately, often of very inferior quality. The grain should

be full and bright, free from shucked seeds, dust, and the excreta

of mice. The beginner should buy from a respectable bird-

dealer, rather than from a corn merchant—for the dealer knows

good seed when he sees it, and will, for the sake of his own birds,

have no other. On the other hand, highly respectable corn

merchants will sometimes supply very inferior bird-seed, not

with any intention of cheating, but because they cannot under¬

stand that the quality of mere bird-seed ” can be of importance.


White millet is another very useful seed, but I do not

consider it equal in value to canary seed. It is considered the

proper food for “ foreign finches,” though some of them seem to

do better without it. I should not give it to Alario Finches, nor

to any of the Siskins, and I should, as far as possible, encourage

all birds to eat canary seed in preference. I have known cases

in wdiich it clearly disagreed with birds, which kept in perfect

health on canary seed. I should not give it to any birds which

were not accustomed to it and were thriving without it. I should,

generally speaking, supply it to all Waxbills, Grassfinches, and

Mannikins, but I should take care that they always had plenty

of canary seed also. White millet is almost always of uniform



