104



Practical Bird-Keeping .



stretched out—always a change of position. If a hough is not

placed in a cage, then the perches should be of different sizes,

and some slanting, some almost upright. Fuither, I have often

noticed that a wild bird chooses a living branch to perch on in

preference to a dead one. Is it the electricity in the living

bough that responds, in some way, or the electricity in the bird’s

foot, or is there a subtle warmth in the live wood that is agree¬

able to the touch ? The fresh earth seems to me of almost equal

importance for the feet.


Earth has a magnetic healing influence, as well for birds

as for man, and I have found the effect of daily contact with fresh

earth wonderful for weak or suffering feet of birds I have kept.

That and the daily bath of fresh water; whereas the feet of birds

I have kept in an aviary with a cemented floor have not been in a

satisfactory state, though I kept the floor well gravelled.


An earth-floor to an aviary can be made rat-proof by a

small-meshed wire netting bottom to the aviary, two or three

feet below the ground. The easiest way of placing such an

aviary in position is to dig out the earth to the size of it, and

sink the aviary in, filling in the earth that has been dug out,

up to the level of the ground. The earth can be raked over

every day, and fresh earth added, and patches of grass laid in

part of it, forming a happy hunting-ground for worms.


I am quite sure that the more of natural surroundings we

can give the birds the healthier they will be. And we owe them

this if we deprive them of freedom.



