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and Virginian Nightingales, Chinese and Californian Quails, etc.

Not only have these passed through the ordeal safely, but the

smallest Waxbills and other allies have had no such help (as

some authorities consider essential) as a lamp during the long

dark nights to enable them to feed at about io p.m. No artificial

warmth whatever is used in their house place. All we do is to

protedt the small foreigners’ section with canvas screens over the

open portion of the roof and to give them an additional supply of

gorse inside, and plenty of hay and feathers with which they

construct their own nests in the sheltered portions of their home.

My constant instructions to the caretaker are to see that the snug

corners are made snugger for the winter and that all branches

are removed which may tempt the birds to perch in the most

exposed positions.


Our birds all look well and are a never-ending attraction

to multitudes of our citizens. Perhaps the condition and

appearance of the Bulbul has surprised me most, for I have not

ventured to introduce one till last summer, believing them to be

delicate birds, and even now I am not of course justified in

speaking generally from the experience of only one specimen ;

but he is perfectly strong and healthy.


The Cow-bird too is a picture of loveliness, and the hen

Budgerigar has a nest full of eggs just recently laid.


In past years I have found March and April the most

dangerous months in the year — for hen birds are so liable to

become egg-bound and die off before they are noticed.



AVICULTURAL HOTCHPOT.


By H. R. Filbmer.


The Bearded Reedling (commonly called the Bearded Tit,

though it is not a Tit) has always had a great charm for me, but

I must confess that I have not been successful in keeping it.

Past summer I had half-a-dozen—two I bought, and four were

given to me by Mr. Russell Humphrys—but I am sorry to say

that onty one now survives. They were all in more or less poor

condition when they came into my possession, most of them

being so bare of feathers that it was difficult to tell their sex.

Four died in the moult, but one pair came into fairly good

plumage and lived on, apparently in perfect health, until one day

in Januaiy, when I found the cock dead. No doubt he had a



