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Practical Bird-Keeping.



ally sprinkle them with a fine syringe ; but as they are unable,

unless kept in a spacious aviary, to get sufficient exercise to dry

them rapidly and restore them to their normal temperature, it is

not advisable to overdo that sort of thing ; and the safer plan, in

my opinion, is to abstain from the practice altogether.


Unless you possess both sexes of a species and desire to

breed from them, Larks are far better kept in cages than aviaries ;

in the former they not only sing much more frequently, but they

can be better attended to. The cage should not, as a rule, be

lofty ; and, for recently acquired birds, which are nervous and

liable to spring recklessly upwards at the risk of concussion or a

broken skull, the roof should be of canvas ; for well-established

birds however this is unnecessary, and then it may either be

of wire or wicker-work, the latter being preferable. For the

common Skylark I found the ordinary runner-cage, two feet in

length, about seven inches in width and nine in height, with a

central door, most suitable : I used to turf one end, thickly sand

the other, hang food and water on the front and put a small pan

of canary-seed inside.


The Chinese cage for thick-billed Larks is circular with a

central one-legged table upon which the bird mounts to sing :

the only objection to this cage is that it is not large enough to

give the inmate much exercise : I therefore got the late Mr.

Abrahams to have a special cage constructed for my Mongolian

Lark ; it was of the waggon pattern, with overarched willow bars

and a sufficient depth of wood to enable me to cover the floor

with abundance of sand ; the back and ends were of wood and

the length of the cage two feet: a movable slip in front admitted

a scraper for cleansing the floor, and the sand was poured in

through the top bars: food and water pans slid in from the front

at either end just above the sand : this bird lived in perfect

health to a good age.


Larks roost at night upon the ground, so that whether in

cage or aviary they should not be subjected to possible attacks by

either rats or old buck mice (the latter are often equally danger¬

ous). Rat or mouse-virus, when it can be obtained in good

condition, is most effective; but I am afraid, now that it has

made a name for itself, it is by no means so satisfactory as when



