8



the British birds, the cock was speedily killed by a Nuthatch,

while a single Pied Wagtail killed off a whole family of the same

species, both parents and three young ones, within a few days, so

soon as the weather set in cold in the late Autumn.


The difficulty of breeding among so mixed a collection is

great, and we only succeed in rearing a few young birds.


My greatest disappointment this year was connected with

two broods of Red-crested Cardinals, both from the same parents.

The second clutch of eggs was laid in the old nest as soon as ever

the first young ones left it, and before they could feed them¬

selves—and they were very slow in trying to do this. Apparently

the effort of feeding them, (there were three), was too much for the

father, for he died while the second eggs were incubating and his

three charges all died also. Then the second brood was hatched,

and, the weather being very favourable, the hen brought them on

by herself till they left the nest, but before they could feed

themselves they died too.


The second ones proved as slow as the first in “ fending ” for

themselves, and the mother grew tired of her job.


Another difficulty, rather apart from the birds themselves,

is that of finding some green shrub or tree that will withstand the

incessant whittling of the birds. Amongst the Parrakeets I have

found nothing, not even the rank growing, intensely nauseous

guelder rose, that will survive, and we therefore have to be content

with occasional changes of strong boughs of lime or elm, from

which they manage in a short time to strip off every bit of bark.


For the British finches and small foreign birds the ever¬

green box seems about the only shrub that can thrive at all, and

ours have done so well that Dinnets and Hedge Accentors have

built beautiful nests in them.


Another difficulty is to satisfy the general public that all

foreign birds, especially if brightly coloured, do not come from

tropical countries, and that it is therefore not cruel to keep them

out of doors during the winter. This shows the need for education,

the prevailing idea clearly is that the expressions “foreign” and

“tropical” are equivalent.


And still another difficulty is to procure specimens of live

birds outside the ordinary run of cage birds. I have being trying

for several years to get live Dippers and Sandpipers, without

success, though one would expedt to get them as easily as King¬

fishers. So few people seem to understand any other method of

getting birds than with the gun, which may answer very well to

meet the demands of ladies’ detestable fashions, but is not much

use to the aviculturist.



