ones, which were visited day after day by Mr. 

 Hunn, the son-in-law of Mr. Miles, who was 

 allowed by the little innocents, old and young, to 

 scratch their polls as they sat in the nest with the 

 grea test familiarity." 



[The above is,— "Fudge!" For Mr. Hunn, 

 gentle reader, read Mr. Hum.] 



Poultry " under Cover" — " The Wide-range." — 

 Some time since, Mr. Editor, when discoursing 

 about eels, which a modern parvenu tried to 

 convince the public were generated from 

 spawn (/), you applied the word " wide-range" 

 to the assertion that " the spawn of eels had 

 been discovered at Worcester." It did prove 

 to be a " wide-range," indeed ! But listen to 

 the following, which first, I believe, appeared in 

 the Agricultural Gazette of May 1st, and is now 

 " going the rounds " as a " fact:" — " Poultry. — I 

 take the opportunity of mentioning a brood of 

 chickens which I saw last week, and which I 

 think is worthy of being recorded as unusually 

 numerous. The brood numbered six-and- 

 twenty, all hatched by one hen; and at the 

 time I saw them were all healthy and thriving, 

 being also a fortnight old. What makes this 

 circumstance the more ' noticeable ' is, that the 

 hen was of the black Polish breed, usually con- 

 sidered bad sitters. The same hen reared a 

 numerous brood last year — how many I could 

 not ascertain with exactitude, but, as the owner 

 expressed it, ' it was well up in the teens.' 

 Besides the eggs which produced chickens, 

 there were two or three , addled ones — the exact 

 number the owner did not recollect. — A Sub- 

 scriber." The last line is capital. " Kecollec- 

 tion " would be puzzled, I calculate, " under 

 existing circumstances." — Argus. 



An Asthmatic Goldfinch. — My poor goldfinch 

 is, I fear, in a bad state. He eats well, and he 

 drinks well; but he often puts his head behind 

 his wing, and sleeps for hours together. He 

 also breathes very hard, and does not sing. 

 What shall I do for him? He is a handsome 

 bird, and I should be sorry to lose him. — G. G. C. 



[Remove his water, and give him new, boiled 

 milk, for two days. Then scrape a little rump 

 steak very fine, and moisten it with water. Put 

 this between the wires of his cage for another 

 two days, and he may yet be saved.] 



What is the proper Food for Young Birds ? — 

 They are now becoming plentiful, and I want 

 to know how to feed them. — Isabella E. 



[Young people ! young people ! Why will you 

 persist in keeping these little creatures prisoners, 

 and perhaps killing half a dozen of them before 

 you can rear them? Has our voice no power? 

 Our remonstrance no effect ? It would seem to 

 be as we suspect. Fie ! — Head our " Treatise on 

 the Canary." Therein you will find what you 

 want to know. In the case of thrushes and 

 blackbirds, however, hempseed must be substi- 

 tuted for rapeseed ; and they must also have some 

 small pieces of finely-chopped raw beef given 

 them, and a little water from the end of your 

 finger — every hour while they are young. Use 

 no fig-dust, and do not attempt to give them 

 German paste, or any dry food, until they are 



nearly two months old. A mealworm or two 

 will be an occasional treat, which you should not 

 neglect to administer.] 



A Caution to all who have " Pet" Birds, — I 

 have two Canaries, Pickwick and David. Also 

 a goldfinch, Dombey. Of these, Pickwick is the 

 favorite, and he has, through my carelessness, 

 nearly lost his life. A few days since I filled 

 all their glasses with water. Some time after- 

 wards, I observed that Pickwick was very fid- 

 getty and restless. Every time I went near him, 

 he would try to attract my notice by coming to 

 the corner of his cage and trying to get his head 

 through the wires. But as I was often in the 

 habit of giving him some tid-bits, I took no par- 

 ticular notice of this till the following Tuesday 

 morning, when he tried so hard to attract my 

 attention that, thinking he was more troublesome 

 than he ought to be, I put him outside the room. 

 About ten o'clock, my sister, thinking he was 

 quieter than usual, peeped in his cage, and there 

 was poor Pickwick lying all of a heap ! his fea- 

 thers rustled, and evidently at his last gasp. 

 When called by his name, he tried hard to look 

 up. But a film had come over his eyes, so that 

 he could hardly see. However he made a hard 

 struggle, and managed to get to the hole where 

 his water was, telling us as plainly as possible, 

 what was the matter with him. And there sure 

 enough was the cause of poor Pickwick's illness! 

 You are aware, no doubt, that the water glasses 

 are put in a wire attached to the cage, and that 

 the hole in the glass fits, or ought to fit, to a 

 corresponding hole in the cage; but being in a 

 hurry on Saturday, I did not look to see whether 

 I had put the glass in properly, and the conse • 

 quence was, the glass only dropped in part of 

 the way, and the poor fellow could not get at 

 his w r ater ! Only think, poor dear " Pickwick " 

 without water from Saturday till Tuesday! How 

 he must have suffered all that time ! Of course,we 

 gave him some water directly, but it was some 

 time before he could swallow any ; and when he 

 did, it was with great difficulty ; finding that he 

 wanted to go to sleep directly (for I suppose the 

 poor little fellow had not been able to get any 

 rest for three nights), I put him in a dark room 

 till the next day. He had then quite recovered, 

 and, I am happy to say, " Pickwick's himself 

 again." Let this operate as a warning to 

 others. — Fitz, Clapham. 



[Were all the cases published, in which birds 

 perish by a similar act of thoughtlessness, their 

 number would be incredible. We have written 

 against the use of these water glasses till We are 

 weary ; nor should they be used for seed. They 

 ought to be discarded altogether. The agony 

 endured by the bird, as described above, must 

 have been intense indeed !] 



Argument for Breeding with young " Hen" 

 Canaries. — Seeing that you, and some of your 

 readers, have set your faces, as a principle, 

 against Canary birds being put up to breed at 

 one year old, permit me to say a few words on 

 behalf of my young friends. I quite agree with 

 you, that birds two years old are considered best 

 to breed from ; also, that they are then consi- 

 dered " steady." Now I have had canary birds 



