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months of the year, place a light near my Gouldians’ cages for an

hour or so in the evening, generally from eight to ten. It is

interesting to see the birds wake up, stretch themselves, and one

after the other go down to the seed and return to their perches

after a hearty meal. This is not an original suggestion, but I am

sure it has an important bearing on the management of exotic

birds at certain times of the year. Draughts, of course, must be

studiously avoided. I never find my Gouldians show discomfort

if the temperature do not fall below 50 degrees or thereabout.

But if I expect a cold night, I generally, on going to bed myself,

move the Gouldians’ cages (waggon-headed ones) to a corner of

the downstairs room, near the fire-place, well out of all draughts,

where the temperature will not fall so quickly as in their usual

position near (but not opposite) some window. If there be an

invalid, his cage is generally taken up to my bedroom so as to be

quite safe from the housemaids. I am convinced that many and

many a valuable and delicate bird owes its death to the cold

blasts to which it is exposed, perhaps before the sun is well up

or the fire well burning, during the period considered necessary

to “ air the room.”


As to green food, I am particular not to give any green

food which shows the least symptom of being “ frosted,” or

which is in a damp condition. Green food in this state must

be objectionable in the case of birds which have been on hard

food, perhaps for months. But, when I dare not offer

leaves of any kind, I often give my birds a tuft of grass, from

the roots of which most of the earth has been shaken. They

find much satisfaction in picking out minute portions of grit,

and also eat the delicate and succulent roots of the grass itself.

There has been, from time to time, correspondence in our

columns on the question of grit. I have, more than once, noticed

that Gouldian Finches of mine, newly - imported, apparently

in good health, have quickly gone amiss and died, when they

found themselves in the presence of unlimited grit and coarse

sand at the bottom of their cage. A horse will drink much less

water in the day if it be always before him, than if it be offered

him occasionally. In the same way, cage birds which have for

a long time always had grit before them, will take a little at inter¬

vals while eating their seed, and, of course, with most beneficial

results. A newly-imported cage-bird, which has had to endure

the most unnatural conditions for weeks or months, suddenly

finds himself in a well-kept cage with an unlimited supply of an

item of his diet of which he has been long deprived, and as

is likely enough to happen, he takes an excessive quantity.



