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Hints about Aviaries.



Flowering grasses, chiekweed, etc., are best placed in the form

of a miniature sheaf of corn, the stems tied round with a piece of

wire, or else the whole bunch can he wired round a stick driven into

the ground. In this way, the birds can pull and peck at the green

food as if it w r ere fixed by natural roots, and at the same time it is

not littered about. It is most important to give fresh green stuff

every day during the spring, summer, and early autumn.


In the autumn too, there are elder and hawthorn berries, etc.

Thrushes and other birds are very fond of the fruit of the Physalis,

or Cape Gooseberry, which must he removed from the outer sheath.

[Bye-the-bye! it makes good jam for ourselves !


Grit is another necessity. Such little fellows as Melba

Finches, Violet-eared Waxbills and the like, greedily devour oyster-

shell grit : a small quantity of which, according to the number of

the birds, can be placed in a red earthenware saucer. Talking of

that, glazed red or green earthemvare is best ; it can he kept cleaner.


Where pheasants, partridges and quails are kept, fresh lettuce

and other green food is most important, and here again the lettuces

can be tied to a stick fixed in the ground. These birds need fresh

salad, berries, fruit, etc. just as much as geese need grass, and ducks

and swans, water plants.


If gentles are given to insectivorous birds, great care must be

taken that they are clean. A good way of collecting these nasty

squirmy things, is to fix up a small rainproof shelter, so long as you

can fix it far enough away from your nose, hook up a bucket or tin,

with holes bored in the bottom, and a piece of meat suspended

inside, and then place a box with clean sawdust beneath. The

maggots when ready to leave the nest, will drop through the holes

into the saw dust, from which they can he collected ; but if they

show any dark stain in their little insides, don’t give them to your

birds, or they will have something in their’s, which may cause them

to turn up their toes. H. D. A.



