MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS. 



Black-bearded Doves. 



not give each seed in separate vessels. There may 

 be rather more waste giving it mixed, but I do 

 not think a bird is so apt to eat more than it should 

 of one kind of seed if it has to be at the trouble 

 of picking that particular seed out. 



Then, in addition to the seed, I give the birds 

 now and then ground biscuit, this being ground 

 up in my "Enterprise" cutter (Spratt's), and after- 

 wards sifted. You will find, though you can 

 regulate the size cut by the screw, that it is im- 

 possible to cut such a substance as biscuit clean. 

 There will always be a certain amount of dust and 

 smaller pieces, but none of this need be wasted. 

 It can be sifted again in a smaller-holed sifter, 

 and again in a smaller still, and this will now give 

 you three sizes of biscuit, the largest for the doves, 

 the smaller size for your tiny birds, the dust for 

 mixing with your soft food, being much more pre- 

 ferable for this purpose, in my opinion, than grated 

 carrot. 



The biscuit I purchase from Messrs. Lipton, 

 getting a case of, sa}', -s cwt. at a time. This 

 will last you for long, and keep well in the wooden 

 box it comes in. The kind I am using now is 

 the "Daisy" biscuit (9/- for a 36 lb. case), before 

 I have used the "President" and "Pan Lunch," 

 but these two kinds have gone up in price. The 

 doves have always a lump of rock salt in a pot in 

 each aviary, and the egg shells are saved in the 

 kitchen, well dried by being placed in a tin cul- 

 linder on the kitchen range, and then ground up 

 in the cutter and given to the birds. 



It is no use trying to grind the shells before they 

 are well dry, and it is no trouble to the cook to put 

 them in the cuUinder, nor for you to empty it 

 every few days. I look on this grit made from 

 eggshells as most important to birds, especially 

 for the hens about to lay. When you know your 

 birds are nesting always remember to scatter plenty 

 of this grit on the floor, and the laying of firm- 

 shelled eggs should be your reward. 



Another item in my doves' diet is cut up Monkey 

 Nuts, or, as some people call them, pea nuts. I 



found this out by accident. I was shelling some 

 nuts as I stood in the aviary, for some of my 

 members of the Parrot tribe, and the bits of nut 

 were picked up and eaten with evident relish by 

 a Violet Dove. But pea nuts are tedious things 

 to shell by hand, and when shelled are awkward 

 and slipper)' to cut with a knife. This difficulty, 

 however, has been got over. Mr. J. J. Armitage 

 (of the firm of Messrs. Armitage, 27, Castle Gate, 

 Nottingham, who are large seed merchants) came 

 to my rescue. He can shell and cut up the nuts 

 for me by machinery, making the pieces any size 

 I like, the price of the nuts being 4/- a stone, 

 shelled and cut. Mr. Armitage has been a very 

 good friend to both my birds and myself, and we 

 owe him our very grateful thanks for many kind- 

 nesses ; he has always been so interested in my 

 birds, and in thinking out anything that may 

 conduce to their comfort. I do not know if the 

 oil that is in the nut might affect a bird's plumage 

 and give it a glossy look, but my birds certainly 

 look very "tight" in feather, and it is very seldom 

 that they ail anything. 



I am sure doves need other food besides dry 

 seeds. Bleeding Hearts are fond of mealworms, 

 and I have found them also delight in "soft" food. 

 This I get from Mr. Armitage at 8d. lb., and very 

 excellent it is. I mix it with the ground biscuit, 

 about half of each. In No. 2 aviary, which is at 

 present rather mixed as to its inhabitants, a pot of 

 this soft food was put daily for a Blue-cheeked 

 Barbet that I had for some years. I soon found 

 other birds besides the Barbet helped themselves 

 to it and flourished. One was my cock Barra- 

 band parrakeet, and others were the Bleeding 

 Hearts. It certainly seemed to suit them, and I 

 have no doubt that others of my doves who also 

 get it are improved by it too, for in so many notes 

 on the wild life of doves we read of their subsist- 

 ing on berries, so that more than a dry seed diet 

 seems needed, and the soft food apparently is an 

 excellent substitute. 



I have spoken in the notes following on the 

 Bronze-wings of their fondness for Wineberries, 



Dwarf Turtle and Brl'sii Bronze-wing. 



