June 15, 1371. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



431 



sayg, " fitted up for the purpose, and a prettier sight we never saw 

 than when every cage contained a little songster, whose cheerful 

 chirrnp and gay plumage made a delightful accompaniment of sight 

 and sound. A variety of improvements had been made in the con- 

 structiou of cages for conveying the partridges, which on former 

 occasions had been mostly a failure. In their efforts to rise they 

 generally destroyed themselves by knocking against the top of the 

 box or cage, and to avoid such mishap on this occasion the boxes were 

 padded with a lining of strong canvas stretched across the inside of 

 each box about half an inch from the wooden top. A dark compart- 

 ment was also made at one end of the bos, so that the birds might have 

 a kind of artificial cover, and it was curious to note how, upon the 

 entrance of a person into the deck house, they would immediately dis- 

 appear under this ' cove,' so that the cages all round had the appear- 

 ance of being teuantless. This contrivance to suit their shyness, how- 

 ever, preserved them in health and strength, and no fresh birds could 

 possibly have been in finer condition or plumage during the whole of 

 the voyage than the partridges thus enclosed." 



The commissariat demanded for these novel voyagers wag both 

 large and varied. It consisted, we are told, of 600 eggs, 5 barrels of 

 flour, 2 barrels of pea-meal for German paste, 10 bushels of hemp- 

 seed, 7 barrels of Canary seed, 6 bushels of wheat, -1 bushels of lin- 

 seed, 2 bushels of rapeseed, 20 bales of compressed hay, 2 tons of sand, 

 and 15 cwts. of carrots, besides many other little odds and ends to 

 make up tempting dishes for songsters who showed signs of indisposi- 

 tion on the journey. Mr. Bills (who accompanied his family, and was 

 never weary in attending to their wants) also brought with him a stock 

 ■of worms kept in bran, and now and then he threw in one of these 

 dainties to a sick robin, with much the same air as a nurse gives a little 

 delicacy to a patient, and the robin snapped up the tempting dainty with 

 a satisfaction which showed how thoroughly he appreciated the attention. 

 It is to be regretted that many of these interesting birds (owing to im- 

 pure water it is supposed) died on the voyage. " Perhaps," says the 

 fellow passenger, " the most difllcalt and taxing part of Mr. Bills's 

 task was the preparation of food for his large family. The number of 

 dishes and mixtures rivalled those supplied by the cook for the cuddy. 

 Larks, linnets, canaries, robins, and partridges, each required separate 

 mixtures, varied to suit the changes in temperature and tastes of the 

 particular songsters. Now and then a little green meat was required 

 for a sick bird, and a blade or two of verdure was raised by sowing 

 Canary or hemp in some crevice or corner of the deck-house. Some- 

 times a bird or two managed to get out of a cage and escape to the 

 ^gS^g. Generally the efforts made to catch such were unsuccessful, 

 and during the night they would drop from the rigging into the sea 

 through sheer exhaustion. On one occasion, however, a valuable little 

 goldfinch was caught by a ship's boy. The bird was perched up in the 

 rigging of the main mast, where it remained till roosting time. It 

 being a beautiful moonlight evening and in the tropics, it was easily 

 observed, and the boy went carefully up the rigging and skilfully 

 caught hold of it while asleep, and depositing it in his bosom de- 

 scended without causing it the slightest injury. The passage through 

 the tropics tried the birds. Up to crossing the line very few were lost, 

 but at this period of the journey a kind of diarrhoea (owing to some 

 of the drinking water having been put in new pine casks) broke out 

 amongst them, and carried off a great number of the small birds. 



" Very cheerful (he adds) it was to hear their sweet notes trilling 

 out on the wide ocean. Often in the night have we listened to the 

 tender whistle of the blackbird, and in the early morn the song of the 

 lark has greeted our waking moments, so that with such surroundings, 

 and giving the reins to the faculty of imagination, we easily transferred 

 ourselves to the borders of some peaceful homestead." 



So much for the incidents of the voyage. It was, as may be supposed, 

 a proud and happy moment for Mr. Bills when he lauded at Otago 

 with the greater proportion of the little creatures he had been com- 

 missioned to bring from the woods and hills of Sussex ; and a very 

 pleasant moment was it for all parties, not excepting the birds them 

 selves, when the moment came for restoring them to their natural state 

 of liberty, though not to their native woods and dales. The scene is 

 thus described : — 



" On the beautiful slope above the Botanical Garden, about nine in 

 the morning, the wax-eyes had already congregated in great numbers, 

 as if they were aware that something unusual was about to happen. 

 They were not long kept in suspense, for suddenly a cage door opened 

 and a flight of goldfinches streamed into the air, all strong on the wing, 

 and keeping together ; they circled round once or twice, and finally 

 settled amongst the trees in the lower end of the valley. Then came 

 a cage of fluttering chaffinches, and the wax-eyes are once more 

 disturbed. Four months ago they chirped amongst the young oak 

 trees of Stanmer Park, and others amongst their fellow voyagers lost 

 their liberty on Lord Chichester's domain. But their freedom 

 is regained, and they have selected a manuka with dense foliage 

 as a temporary abode. A flock of twites, however, soon contended 

 ■with them for the possession of the tree. These pretty little mountain 

 linnets were taken on the Brighton coast, where they happened to be 

 1 a visit from their usual home in the far-north Hebrides. "What 

 strong-flighted bird is this, each of which has a little cage to itself ? 

 This is the gardeners' friend, the hedge sparrow, and Mr. Bills tells us 

 that, if placed together, they would fight to the death. These birds, 

 eighty in number, were trapped by a few market gardeners — as a rule, 

 they cannot be persuaded to snare their insect-eating friend— and 



brought in by them to Brighton in the early morning, along with their 

 fruit and vegetables. By this time these birds have found their way 

 into many a garden in town. The redpoles, the eerie buntings, and 

 the reed sparrows soon joined their companions. The blackbirds and 

 thrushes expected, no doubt, that it was their turn next ; but if they 

 thought so, they were doomed to disappointment, as they must wait 

 patiently for a few days until their wings are flighted. As we left the 

 spot we observed our little friends restlessly surveying their new quar- 

 ters, and giving us the full benefit of their pent-up song. Later in the 

 day Mr. Bills released the yellow-hammers amongst the bushes at 

 Caversham, and left the skylarks, soaring above the Green Island 

 fields." 



And here we leave them, trusting that they will " increase and 

 multiply " in the new world, as much as, or more, than the race of un- 

 feathered bipeds to whose delight they contribute ao largely ! 



BEE-KEEPING FOR COTTAGERS. 



I HAVE not had an opportunity of seeing your paper for 

 several weeks, or I should have replied to the somewhat mild 

 stricture passed upon me by " Shepherdswell " in reference 

 to the brimstone torch. 



Allow me to say, in the first place, I was perfectly aware that 

 by advocating the use of torches I should bring down upon my 

 head the anathemas of several deservedly respected opponents 

 of the practice ; at the same time I have always looked upon 

 the practice with considerable qualms of conscience, in fact 

 with a similar feeling to that experienced when seeing an 

 animal slaughtered for food ; but until I read the letter appear- 

 ing in your columns on the 11th ultimo, I was not aware of any 

 better plan for keeping a stock of hives within reasonable 

 bounds (likely to be within the cottager's means) than that 

 which I recommended ; and although I know Mr. Pettitt, I had 

 no idea it was his practice to take honey for my neighbours in 

 the manner mentioned by your correspondent (reserving to 

 himself the bees), but such being the case, I am free to admit 

 that it is by far the better plan, supposing the bees are not 

 starved in the following winter, and I should be happy it he 

 would take the honey ol my surplus stock in the same 

 manner. 



With regard to the criticism of the Rev. C. Cotton, I think it 

 is something to have raised a ghost, and I am sure I shall be 

 delighted if my letter shall have been the means of inducing 

 that gentleman to make his exit from the spirit world, and not 

 only rejoice but edify us by his practical communications upon 

 this interesting subject. — W. J., Shcpherd^well. 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMS— INTRODUCING 

 LIGURIAN QUEENS. 



I AM doubtful of my being able to find the queens of two 

 black stocks in bar-frame hives to which I want to introduce 

 two Ligurian queens. Gould I proceed as if to make artificial 

 swarms by taking a bar from the parent hive, placing it in an 

 empty hive on the stand of the parent hive, as described in "Bee- 

 keeping for the Many," but instead of leaving the bees to rear 

 a queen, at the same time introduce the Ligurian queen in the 

 queen cage ? Or, would it be better to drive the bees from the 

 parent hive to make an artificial swarm, then place it on the 

 stand of another black stock, and introduce the Ligurian queen 

 ia that way ? — W. L. 



[Your best plan of proceeding will probably be to take ont 

 and look over every comb of the stock-hiye nutil you discover 

 the queen. Having done so, place the comb with the queen 

 in a box near at hand. Now, choose one of the other combs 

 well-filled with sealed brood appearing far advanced, which 

 you put into a nucleus-box or a spare hi?e. If you can do so, 

 add a frame containing empty worker-comb on either side of 

 the brood-comb. Take two or three other combs and brush off 

 the bees into the nucleus-box, endeavouring to secure as many 

 young bees as possible. Close the nnoleus-box with a cover of 

 perforated zinc, and the entrance with the same, and remove 

 the box withiu-doors until the evening. Put back the oomb 

 with the queen into the old stock, moving-up the other comba 

 towards the centre, giving an empty frame at the side, leaving 

 it on the original stand. - The following day most, it rot all, of 

 the old bees which have previously taken wing will !eave the 

 nucleus which has been placed on a stand at some distance 

 from the stock, to which they will return. The jonng beea 

 never having taken flight will remain, and those slso which 

 are being hatched-out. You had better examine the t.ncleus 

 in the forenoon, and if yon find there are very few bees you 



