124



Captain G. A. Perreau,



enjoy the early morning sun as soon as possible. There is no

incentive to roost or nest in the open.


Nest boxes in detail would require an article to them¬

selves and I must content myself with little more than mentioning

a few. I am sure one cannot have too many or too great a

variety. For small finches all sorts of domestic boxes and tins

come in useful; Liptou’s one-pound tea tins are most handy,

with very little faking, to hang on wire netting. I must confess

to liking nests which easily satisfy my curiosity, so prefer the

above when fitted with doors, and which can also be easily taken

down to look at, but I use all sorts as well, husks and cocoanut

shells, home-made willow basket-nests, old hats, straw wine-

bottle covers on wooden ends, sections of hollow branches both

upright and horizontal, &c. Boxes for Parrakeets are of even

greater variety as these birds are more exigent. I have found

a log, or a box with “ log-wood ” bottom and entrance at the end,

the best. I generally screw in a bit of “ log-wood ” inside the

entrance, to allow the Parrakeets to make their own chips. By

“ log-wood ” I mean wood from a hollow tree, from which the

inside rotten wood has come away naturally. I have found tinder

or cheesy rotten wood to be useless except as a toy. A good log

of tinder set up against a post with a few holes bored in it makes

a splendid toy, and is generally worth watching, especially when

there are young Budgerigars about. Budgerigars and Cockatiels

have bred with me in “ gritty” rotten wood logs, but have never

reared full broods, the wood comes out in small chunks which

seem good neither for eggs nor young. I much regret money

wasted in a variety of small barrels. My Budgerigars have bred

in husks, but they much prefer boxes. Husks are, in my opinion,

much over-rated, picturesqueness is their only advantage over

boxes for any birds.


Young birds are (or should be) caught out as soon as they

are really able to look after themselves ; Parrakeets with a net,

others with the sieve traps except when they are wanted in a

hurry when the net is used for them too. The net is a large

butterfly net on a cane frame with practically no handle. The

sieve trap is a large wire-covered box held up by a cord which

runs on pulleys to a nail in the wall close to my chair. It has a



