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on Successful Bird-Keeping in Cages.



bath is hung on the 7-inch door, and some fresh turf, put just

inside this door, prevents the water from splashing the board.

This cage is all wire. At night, if cold, a cloth is put over the

top. The following birds have been in it for six months and are

in the best of health :—Bronze-headed Troupial, Virginian Car¬

dinal, Grey Bulbul, Red-cheeked Bulbul, Blue Tauager, Black

Tanager lieu, a pair of Crown Tanagers and a hen Marsh bird.

In the following description of cage there are: pair Superb

Tricolour Tanagers, pair Pekin Nightingales, and a Stonechat.

Length, 36 inches; height, 36 inches; breadth, 24 inches; all

wire ; swing perches ; four food glasses.


All the Fruit-eaters are fed the same, as much variety as

possible being given, and it is astonishing what funny things

they like. First, a very excellent soft food without egg—which

I find they eat heartily—sometimes mixed with sponge cake, at

others potato or grated carrot. Soaked sultanas and currants

they love, also boiled rice ; bread and butter they devour greedily,

in huge mouthfuls. Lettuce they like and eat it all ; of course

the usual fruit, orange, banana, and grapes ; flies, gentles, meal¬

worms, even a garden worm is not despised. I notice that all my

Tanagers are partial to seed, eating oats and canary, which is put

for the Marsh Bird and Cardinal. I think keeping the cage

always spotlessly clean, with frequent scrubbing and Jeyes’ disin¬

fectant, a good supply of gravel and plenty of air, (as the cages

are put out of doors in a sheltered place whenever fine), accounts

for the birds doing so well.


Those birds which live alone, are, as a rule, let out for a

fly every day. They require exercise, and are quite well behaved,

returning to their cages for a mealworm at once.


Now as to the Waxbills: these have been kept in an

aviary cage and have done very well indeed. It is an ordinary

Crystal Palace three-dome cage, the middle dome being filled

with rush nests, in which four or five sleep together. They

are a mixed lot : I have Cordon Bleus, Orange Breasts, St. Helena,

Cape and African Waxbills, with one Lined Finch, one Fire Red,

and one Violet-backed Spermophila ; also a lovely pair of Pintailed

Nonpareils. At present the latter, although so crowded, are busy

trying to nest.



