Fox-, Cat-, and Rabbit-proof. 93 



divisions— should be easily removable to the end, that the 

 birds can at pleasure be driven right through into the smaller 

 pens for the purpose of capture, wing-clipping, etc. 



" The introduction and placing about occasionally of freshly- 

 eut iir tree branches is judicious. With reference to aliment,, 

 the greater the variety offered the better : and for a thoroughly 

 trustworthy detail upon this vital point, again I gratefully 

 add, vide ' Tegetmeier.' Eegularity in the hours of feeding,, 

 however, is as essential as is the quality of food administered — 

 three times diurnally, any unfinished d^iris of the previous-- 

 meal having first been carefully removed, should the repasts 

 be neatly and deUcately served, not forgetting that, while all 

 required is offered with no niggard hand, over-lavish generosity, 

 only too often the mere promptings of laziness, ought most 

 carefully to be avoided. 



"Powerless are the prisoners to escape those fatal mias- 

 matic vapours speedily generated by decaying vegetable and 

 animal matter, which, when permitted to daily be trampled 

 into the floors of the dwelhng, are ever within a few inches,, 

 be it recollected, of their respiratory organs. In addition 

 also, it is wise to have duplicate shallow circular galvanised 

 iron water pans of about eighteen inches in diameter. Thej 

 are hght, and consequently more likelj^ to undergo that 

 thorough and frequent cleansing so necessary." 



Coverts may be stocked either Avith wild birds or with those, 

 hatched in pens, that have never been at liberty. Wild birds 

 caught at the commencement of the year, not later than the 

 middle of January, are healthier and more prolific than young 

 birds that have never been allowed to fly. When caught,, 

 they should at once be put into large pens on fresh ground,, 

 having had the flight feathers of one wing cut off, when, if 

 they are properly fed, they will become fairly tame before the 

 breeding season. However tame they may become, they 

 should not be kept more than one, or at the most two seasons, 

 when their wings should be allowed to grow and other birds 

 captured to supply their place. Other modes are adopted for 



