38 Mr. H. C. Martin,


long, damp, foggy winter. These two I have given to another of

our members, but shall certainly try to get a couple more to keep

when I return, for I know no species I can more strongly recom-

mend to bird lovers, more perhaps as a pet than from the strictly

avicultural point of view.


As to feeding, I think what one would give to an ordinary

.English Jay or Magpie is all sufficient : a little meat, for prefer-

ence cooked, hard-boiled egg and biscuit, varied with an occasional

chicken bone, some sweet cake, fruit or nuts, of which latter they

are very fond, and a few mealworms or insects when obtainable,

seem to suit them well, though they eat but little for their size.

They revel in a good splash and should be allowed a good large

bath pretty often.


In an aviary or very large cage I should feel inclined to

fix up for them one of those large wire flower-baskets, or else

some sort of box, like a small dog-kennel with a wire-work

bottom and a perch inside, as basis for a possible nest.


Parts of Uruguay abound in beautiful and interesting

birds, very many of which I feel sure have never reached Eng-

land except as skins. One is struck at first by their greater

tameness in the wild state, as compared with our native species,

but to obtain them alive is not an easy matter, the professional

bird-catcher being out there a scarce individual, while the average

native peon fails quite to understand why a mutilated corpse or

severely injured bird is not a desirable acquisition to the erratic

" ingles." However, far distant be the day when the professional

catcher may become a common object of the country.


In conclusion, a few words as to bringing birds home from

foreign countries, though what I am about to say is nothing new

to most aviculturists. Insist upon a strong, sufficiently large and

airy cage of the box pattern, open only in front. (Oh, the martyr-

dom that I have seen hundreds of unhappy birds subjected to on

board ship, throughbad caging, over-crowding, and the appalling

ignorance of their owners, who cannot make out why one in ten

often cannot survive a three-weeks' passage.) Let your cage be

made with small meshed wire even for the largest birds — this to

defeat as far as possible the assaults of those strange people who

think that all living things were made for them to poke at, as



