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On Bengalese as Cage-Birds.



two in my case, what might have been others are only dried up eggs or

dead birds, owing probably to their heavier and older companions having

trampled them to death.


The last brood consisted of one bird, which left the nest on the 15th

of September, and a much younger bird, which I did not discover until

the 16th, with only the tail and wing-feathers just showing. It must have

hatched out later than the first bird, probably from the second pair of eggs.

I found it when cleaning out the nest-box, after the others had flown. The

parents seemed to forget it after that, and the next morning I found it dead

in the nest, probably from cold as there was plenty of food in the crop.


Observations were not easy to take, because I had other birds nesting

close by at the same time.


The chief reason of their not rearing more was, I think, the dirty

state into which their nests got. Some of them seemed to leave the nest

before they could fly properly, and died from exposure during the nights of

last summer. I lost a brood of Long-tailed Grassfinches through a dirty

nest. I pulled all the hay out of their second nest, when the young were

about half grown, and left the parents to reline it, which they did, and all

went well. But these birds are not so timid as the African Silverbill.


H. L. Sich.



BENGALESE AS CAGE-BIRDS.


Of Bengalese in the aviary my experience has been small, my birds

having been kept almost entirely in cages, where their quaint little ways

showed to great advantage.


During the spring and summer each pair occupied a separate cage,

where they nested with more or less energy and success ; and in the winter

the cocks lived together in one large flight cage, and the hens in another.

They were the smallest birds I possessed at that time, and their white

colouring and gentle ways made them seem too fragile to rough it in the

aviary- among stronger birds.


When Bengalese first arrive in this country they seem rather

delicate: six I bought this summer all died within a few weeks, probably

owing to the cold and damp, as four of them at least appeared to be quite

healthy at first.


When once acclimatized they are fairly hardy, and a high temperature

is not at all necessary to their well-being. My bird-room was between 45 0

and 55 0 in winter and the Bengalese, even in cages, were quite happy. A11

odd lieu, who is still out in my garden aviary, looks bright and cheerful even

when the grass outside is white with frost. Their habit of all crowding into

one sleeping box at night must help to keep them warm. I have seen seven

cocks pack themselves into one cocoanut shell night after night, although



