16 



he will do without reluctance, he may be certain of bringing up his young Almonds, 

 and i^e is judicious he may generally have a succession of feeders, by taking 

 away the hens of his feeders, and confining them awhile, and when any of his beat 

 Almonds are within a day or two of laying, turn the feeder hen to her mate, they 

 will go to nest immediately, and lay in a week or less after the others, by which 

 means he will get a certain shift for his young Almonds at the distance of six, 

 seven, or eight days, which is just the time the old ones begin to desert them, and 

 thus bring up a pair of good birds, which without such feeders he probably would 

 have lost, he should let the common birds feed their own young a day or two 

 after hatcliing to bring on their soft meat. 



There are Fanciers, who, by no means approve of shifting oftener than once, 

 if it can be avoided, but sometimes the course of shifting throughout the whole 

 loft, will necessarily be such that it cannot be prevented. Too great a supply of 

 soft meat is very detrimental, and frequently fatal, by causing the canker or 

 putrescence in the throat of the young bird. It is very necessary to give the 

 young ones fresh nests when you shift them, and here I will just throw out a hint — 

 I sincerely hope you have no insects, for if you scrape up your aviary, loft, or 

 breeding places daily, by attention to these rules you will not be troubled with 

 these insects in any material degree ; the best way is to burn the old nasts, and 

 a few hot cinders dropped into the nest pan, and shaken round, will kill all 

 that remain in the porous parts of the pan. Some Fanciers assert that shifting 

 the nests of the young birds is apt to give them the scowers, but I cannot say I 

 have ever experienced that to be the case, on the contrary they have always 

 thriven greatly. 



OF MOULTING. 



This, though not a disease, but natural to all the feathered kind, is more fatal 

 to the Almond Tumbler than any disease that afflicts them, they moult, or in 

 other words, cast their old feathers, and acquire a new set every year. Numbers, 

 of them die under this painful operation of nature, before they can accomplish the 

 change, and most of them are rendered more or less unwell, particularly the hens, 

 which are generally more delicate and less capable of bearing such a change ; if 

 they are old it is mostly fatal to them. They begin to moult about May or June 

 by casting the flight feathers, and no further moult is perceptible till the middle 

 of July or so, when the body feathers begin to appear pretty thick about the 

 aviary or loft, in August they get considerably into moult, and in the month 

 of September, they are what is called deep in moult, many of them being very 

 ragged about the breast and hackle, and some of their necks are featherless, but 

 full of stumps of the new feathers, which gives them a very disagreeable appearance 

 for a short time, greatly altering the proportions of their shape, and disguising 

 them so much that the Fancier scarcely knows his own birds. Should he chance 

 to go out of town for a month or six weeks at this particular season, he would on 

 his return have great difficulty in distinguishing one from another,, from the great' 

 alteration that takes place, for in general they acquire more colour, and get darker 

 every year, particularly the cock birds. They do not get completely out of moult 

 till November, and I have seen them moulting even later than this. Towards the 

 close of the season, when the birds are in the worst stage of their moulting, and 

 the weather is gradually getting colder, warmth is particularly necessary m 

 order to assist them in casting their feathers kindly. Notwithstanding this, I do 

 not think it right to shut up the aviary or loft, running the risk of affecting the 

 health of the birds in general, and making them tender on account of a few that 

 are not so well as the others, for air is as necessary as warmth ; but such as are 

 imusually ill should be taken and put in a pen, in a room where there is a fire, 

 giving them a pill or two of aloes, with some seed. If they do not begin to moult 

 freely with this treatment, some of their rump and tail feathers should be pulled 

 out, which will sometimes set them into moult"; it will be proper to give all the 



