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soft paste, and which should be prepared fresh every day, as

sour meal is very fatal to all kinds of birds.”


This is very well, but our author goes on to recommend

the same diet for young larks: the proper food for adult larks,

we are told, is “bread, egg and hempseed.” It is curious that

the tradition of hempseed as the orthodox food for larks has

survived, and holds its own among modern aviculturists.



FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAGES.


By Aug. F. Wiener.


After a long interval, during which I had not kept any

birds, it occurred to me that I would try to keep a few foreign

finches in an ordinary cage in my library. Formerly I had kept

11137- birds in a large specially constructed aviary; the attempt,

therefore, to keep foreign finches during winter in an ordinary

family room, and to maintain them in a state of perfect health,

was, in some respects, a new departure for me. As I succeeded

beyond my most sanguine expectations, I may perhaps be able

to give some of our readers a few useful hints.


In my former aviary I had a little fountain in each

compartment, the jet of which fell into a flat cement basin,

forming a miniature pond about an inch deep. I had observed

that the small finches were so particular about the purity of their

drinking-water, that they always drank from the jet as it issued

from the pipe, and used the miniature pond for bathing only,

though it was thoroughly cleansed with a hard brush aud

emptied once a day.


In my cage I used a syphon glass, placed in such a

position that there was practically no possibility of any dirt

falling into the water. This glass was carefully and thoroughly

washed every day. I much prefer glass drinking fountains, as

they show any impurity at a glance; reveal it at once if forgotten

to be attended to ; and cannot leak.


As a bath, I used a cheap little zinc trough of oval shape,

about six inches long, three or four broad, aud one-and-a-half or

two deep. At first the birds were shy to use it; the metal

bottom frightened them, as it gave no kind of foothold they did

not venture to splash, and jumped out of the bath as quickly as

they got in. My putting a handful of fine sea sand into the bath

produced surprising results. The birds jumped in at once,

sometimes three or four at a time, in fadt as man3 T as the tin



