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wires : some rush stalks were put into the cage ; on which they

presently made a nest large enough to hide one of them, but it

was as often deranged as made, the work of one day being

spoiled the next. This evinced that the fabrication of the nest

in a state of nature was the work of male and female, and that

the female is not able to finish this important work by herself.”


The Cardinal Grosbeak seems to have been well known to

our grandfathers, but none of the other Cardinals are mentioned ;

the Mocking-bird and “Blue-bird” (Blue Rock Thrush) were very

highly esteemed as cage-birds, and these practically exhaust the

list of foreign cage-birds known to our author. From this

scanty list, Australian species are altogether absent: indeed, no

Australian species is mentioned in the book at all. The Canary

was, of course, known, and held a well-established position as

a cage-bird ; the author remarks, “ they appear to have been

brought into Europe about the fourteenth century, but they are

now so commonly bred in our own country that they may be

easily procured. It is about five inches and a half in length; the

plumage in general yellow, more or less mixed with grey and

in some with brown on the upper parts. .... Buffon

enumerates 29 varieties, and many more might probaoly be

added to the list. .... The Canary will breed freely with

the Siskin and Goldfinch ; it likewise proves prolific with the

Einnet, and also admits, but unwillingly, the Chaffinch, Yellow

Bunting and even the Sparrow.”


Turning to Britisli birds, most of those species which are

now kept as cage-birds were popular a hundred years ago.

Meat seems to have been the staple diet for soft-billed birds, but

mealworms, chopped egg, and ants’ eggs were also used. The

following directions for feeding Nightingales are given : “ Their

food should always be sheep’s hearts or other raw flesh meat

chopped fine, and it should always be mixed with hens’ eggs

boiled hard ; they should have ants’ mould ; they must be kept

very clean, for otherwise they will have the cramp and perhaps

the claws will drop off. In autumn they will sometimes abstain

from their food for a fortnight and sometimes longer, unless two

or three mealworms be given them two or three times a week, or

two or three spiders in a day ; they must likewise have a little

saffron in their water. Figs chopped small among their meat

will help them to recover their flesh. When their legs are gouty,

to which they are very subject after having been kept in a cage,

they should be anointed with fresh butter or capon’s fat, three or

four days together. If they grow melancholy, white sugar candy

should be put into their water, and they should be fed with



