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Notes on Gannets in confinement.



Parrot and a Lesser Hill Mynah. The latter is a splendid talker and

is most amusing. These birds are all very tame and are great pets.


Owing to the difficulty of taking my birds to and from Edin¬

burgh I can only keep a certain number, so when I am tempted with

anything new I am compelled to part with one or two of the other

birds to make room for the new ones. Notwithstanding all these

difficulties and drawbacks my birds give me a very great deal of

pleasure, and I do not consider anything a trouble that adds to

their comfort, health and happiness.


I feed them on the usual seeds, soft food and milk sop suitable

to the different kinds that I have at the moment, also green food and

banana.


The floor of the bird room is linoleum with a thick covering

of sand. I also have a good bird room in our house in Edinburgh,

but it is not so cheerful and bright as in the country. However, so

long as the birds are warm and comfortable they get through the

winter months very well. I generally show some of my birds at the

Scottish National Cage Bird Show held in Edinburgh at New Year

time and hitherto have been fairly successful.



NOTES ON GANNETS IN CONFINEMENT.


By J. H. Gurney.


There is not much difficulty in keeping Gannets in tolerable

health for a year or two if a regular supply of fish is obtainable and

their feet do not get diseased. This is an obstacle which seems hard

to guard against, swellings springing up on the soles, which in time

make the birds lame, and nothing seems to heal them.


Gannets fight but little in captivity, whatever they may do on

their native rocks, probably because the sexual impulse is dulled or

lacking, and it has only once happened that a Gannet has been

known to kill another Gannet, and then most likely it was because,

refusing to feed, it was driven to desperation by hunger.


No amount of frost or cold seems to hurt a Gannet, that is, an

old Gannet, for the young ones less inured are more delicate. The

tame ones here described, would awake quite happy after a night of



