TURQUOISINE. 79 



will keep them in splendid health for years, particularly if they live 

 in a well-grassed aviary out of doors: in the house, too much green 

 food is apt to induce diarrheea, and groundsel must be given sparingly, 

 unless small and grown on very poor ground: but tufts of grass in 

 flower will afford a rich treat which we have never known to disagree. 



Egg-binding is a troublesome and too often fatal complication, of 

 which the cause, or causes, are somewhat obscure, and which, in point 

 of fact, is more readily prevented than cured. It may, we think, be 

 taken for granted that a bird that suffers from egg-binding is a weak 

 bird; consequently the aviarist should see that his pairs are in vigorous 

 health, before he thinks of putting them up for breeding, or certain 

 disappointment will be the result. If the cock is weak, the eggs run 

 a great chance of being sterile, and if the hen is not in good health, 

 either she will not lay, or will be egg-bound, or, worst fatality of all, 

 she will die on her nest, after having deposited her eggs, or when 

 her young brood are half-reared. 



Here again prevention is preferable to cure, and if the birds are 

 young, strong, and have plenty of room for exercise, not much need 

 be feared: they will set about the work of reproducing their species 

 with commendable assiduity, and their owner will derive not only 

 pleasure, but profit, from their endeavours, for, as we have said, they 

 are prolific in captivity, and the young of one season will, themselves, 

 be parents in the next. An esteemed correspondent writes: "1 think 

 a great source of egg-binding is from the birds being too fat, from a 

 continual diet of seed; I have found it so among poultry. Pullets 

 when first beginning to lay are very liable to it when fed on maize, 

 which makes them also very fat." 



It has been remarked that in-breeding is very prejudicial to some 

 species, but is not particularly so in the case of the Turquoisine ; 

 though how far the sib-crossing might be carried with impunity, is 

 somewhat difficult to determine: in any case the aviarist will do well 

 to introduce new blood occasionally, and should he chance to notice 

 any deterioration, either in point of colour, or of size, or strength, in 

 his in-bred birds, he should, at once, separate the related pairs, and 

 mate them with birds of a strange stocky but, of course, of the same 

 species. 



As we have seen it stated that the Turquoisine is a quarrelsome 

 and tyrannical bird, we can but repeat, that we have not found it to 

 be so, and such is also the opinion of Dr. Russ, who observes: "Ein 

 reizendes Vogelclien, welches ebensowol an Farbenpracht, als audi an 

 Anmuth und Liebenswurdigheit in der grossen Mannigfaltiglceit aller 

 Stubenvogel uberhaujpt einen hohen Hang einnimmt." (A charming little 



