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fit—but why ? He was in excellent condition, neither fat nor

thin, and had never looked the least out of sorts.


It has often puzzled me that the Blackcap and the Garden

Warbler, which are apparently so closely allied, should differ so

greatly in their adaptability to confinement. Of small British

soft-food birds the Blackcap is undoubtedly the easiest to keep,

and if properly fed it will live for years in perfedt condition. But

the Garden Warbler is a very difficult bird to keep in anything

like good condition, and most examples speedily become shabby

and do not live long. Both species eat largely of fruit as well as

insects, and I should have thought that what would suit one

would suit the other—-but this does not seem to be the case (a).


In December, a beautiful Purple-capped Dory of mine (£)

astonished me, more than a little, by laying an egg. Dories and

Dorikeets often make great preparations for nesting, but seldom

get so far as laying—at least that is my experience. The bird in

question is paired with a Ceram Dory, and the two are much

attached to each other. The egg was laid at the bottom of the

aviary, and when I found it I rigged up a nesting box and put

the egg inside. The Purple-cap sat for some weeks with fair

regularitjq but nothing came of it, and the egg disappeared. She

is now sitting again.


I had a provoking experience last year with , a pair of

Madagascar Dove Birds. The hen sat three times, always on

fertile eggs, and always with the greatest devotion, )'et all the

eggs were addled. Both the birds are in perfect health, and I

am at a loss for the reason for this failure.


I wonder that Peat Moss Bitter is not more used as a

covering for the floor of aviaries, For seed-eating birds there is

nothing so good as a mixture of sand and gravel, but although

that can be used for soft-food birds also, it will in their case be

found both troublesome and expensive, as its absorbent powers

are small, and it will require constant renewal. Sawdust answers

fairly well in some respects, and is very cheap—but I like Peat

Moss much better. If the bottom of the aviary be somewhat

thickly covered, it will be sufficient to rake it over once or twice

a week, and renew the moss about once in six weeks. (But the

time the Moss will last depends of course on the size of the

aviary, and the size and number of the birds). It is wonderful^


(a) I have not found the Garden Warbler at all difficult to keep in an aviary ; the

two I have had used to eat my regular soft-food mixture and a good deal of seed ; they

had a little fruit occasionally. — A. G. B.


(3) She sat the full time without result, and, on searching the nest, I could find

no trace of eg-gs, but surely these must have existed !—H. R. F.



