28 



great deal from the summer heat. Except frequently changing the 

 drinking and bathing water, and allowing all possible ventilation, 

 little can be done. In cases of urgent necessity a wet blanket stretched 

 on a line across the bird-room, and kept in a saturated condition, will 

 be found to give considerable relief. 



INSECTS 



are at the same time getting troublesome to the hens and nestling?, 

 and the removal of infested nests, and the consequent shifting of 

 eggs or yoking, must now be of almost daily occurrence to prevent 

 the multiplication of red mite. The breeder has therefore now to be 

 himself the builder of fresh clean nests, and he will find a hard- 

 boiled fowl's egg of great assistance to him in this task. While the 

 egg is still hot he will twist it round and round in the bulging 

 "Charpie," and will thus mould a hollow of the right size, firm and 

 even. (Since this was written a handy little nest moulder* of turned 

 wood has been constructed, and largely adopted in G-erman breeding 

 rooms. — The Editor.') Persian insect powder (pyrethrum pulv.) is a 

 very useful accessory, but will scarcely be necessary if any suspected 

 nest and box be carefully detached from their moorings and consignel 

 to boiling water, their places being taken by another nest box, and a 

 nest prepared as above described. The undue increase of these 

 troublesome little pests may be thus easily prevented, but, as it is, 

 unfortunately, mostly the fact that wherever birds are, there also are 

 red mite, it should really be the keeper's constant endeavour to 

 exterminate them. If the insides of the breeding cages or flight rooms 

 have been well lime washed in the winter, such insects as may be im- 

 ported, or unaccountably introduced, will take refuge at first in and 

 around the nest boxes. If allowed to accumulate, they will travel 

 higher up to the roosting places, and lodge in any available crevices, 

 especially at the ends of the perches. Here they may still be 

 readily got at, and many methods of destroying them are easy of 

 adoption. Being strictly nocturnal, they leave their feeding places 

 (the bodies of the birds) before daylight appears, and seek such hid- 

 ing places as may be accessible to them. These are mostly where the 

 wires are let into the wood of the cage ; the top of the cage, where 



* The Publisher, W. Rudd, supplies this article. 



