176



Practical Bird-Keeping.



The mistake is often made of pairing the birds too soon, a

procedure which defeats its own object. The male is usually

ready before the female, and if they be paired as soon as the male

is in ‘condition’ he exhausts himself in trying to persuade his

mate to take on duties for which she has no inclination, and she,

worried with his attentions, loses ‘condition’ rather than gains it.


We will now suppose that by the beginning of April both

sexes are ready to breed, or nearly so, we still need not hurry,

the longer the sexes are kept apart the more easily they will pair,

and the middle of April is quite early enough to bring them

together.


We must now turn to the important question of pairing

and the second of our great factors ‘ stimuli.'


If possible the hens should have been kept in the aviary

in which they are to breed, and if, as often happens, it is neces¬

sary to have two or more species breeding in the same aviary, the

hens should have been kept together during the early months of

the year. If, however, it has not been practicable to keep the

hens in their breeding quarters during the few months imme¬

diately preceding the nesting season they should have been

moved into their nesting quarters at least a fortnight previous

to the introduction of the males.


The number of hens kept should always be greater than

the number of males, as they are more difficult to get into ‘ con¬

dition,’ and since they play the chief part in the choosing of their

mates there is more chance of any particular cock finding his

‘ affinity ’ if there are several hens on the look out for an ‘ eligible

bachelor.’ Animals and birds will generally mate up, even if

they are not particularly attached to each other, if there be only

one pair, but success is much more probable if they are allowed

to choose their own mates. These small details may seem rather

trivial, but it must be remembered that these notes are meant to

apply chiefly to those species which seldom breed in confine¬

ment ; with those that nest freely these methods are unnecessary,

though, even in the case of free breeders, these hints would not

be found useless.


We will now presume that our birds are in ‘ condition ’ and

the hens in their breeding aviary, the next move is to introduce



