2 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



Attempts have fi-oiii time to time been made to keep most, if not all, of these 

 birds in cages or aviaries ; some of them I have myself attempted to keep ; but, 

 as a rule, the life of these birds in captivit}' is limited; and, unless I could secure 

 a Roller or a Bee-eater, ni}- measure of success with other members of the Order 

 would not tempt me to repeat the experiment with any Picaria. 



As none of these birds are seed-eaters they are necessarily difficult to cater 

 for, troublesome to keep clean, and their vocal performances do not pa}' for their 

 food : on the other hand some of them are extremely beautiful in plumage, whilst 

 Wrj-necks and Woodpeckers, if successfully hand-reared, are remarkably tame and 

 docile ; though even then the}- must be kept in cages, unless a small aviar}' can 

 be set apart for each species. 



A. G. BUTLER. 



