Hints for Beginners. 
117 
will bring up two or more families regularly every season. 
Care, however, should be taken to see that they do not go to nest 
too early in the season, as the hens are liable to egg-binding. 
The cock has a rather pleasant little song, and he makes a better 
cage bird than any other of the Antipodean Parrakeets. They 
appear to take little notice of the smaller birds, but in the breed- 
ing season are aggressive with other Parrots. 
To be continued. 
^H^> 
Hints for Beginners. 
By Horatio R. Fillmer. 
Reprinted from " B.N.," October, IQOI, page 14. 
It is quite true that foreign cage-birds are very deHcate, 
and it is equally true that they are very hardy. These statements 
seem absolutely contradictory, but they are not. Foreign birds, 
7i'/ir» )!C7i.'ly imported, are delicate, and in the case of some 
species the percentage of deaths is high. On the other hand, 
those which have survived for some months after importation 
are generally hardy, often hardier than our native birds. The 
beginner often invests in a few newly imported Waxbills, which 
have been taken out of a warm bird-shop, through the cold of 
an English March, and turns them into an all-wire cage in a 
draughty window. Within a fortnight half of them are dead, 
and the owner is disgusted with the " delicacy " of foreign 
birds. If lie had been able to secure acclimatized specimens (and 
willing to pay a consequent higher price) he would have had 
fewer losses than with the same number of Goldfinches or Bull- 
finches. 
On the whole there is nothing like sand for the bottoms 
of cages and aviaries — not only in the case of seed-eaters, but 
for soft-food birds. For Lorikeets and Lories something more 
absorbent, such as sawdust or peat-litter, is required, and also 
for Toucans and other large soft-bills. But for small fruit- 
eating and insect-eating birds, sand is the best. I generally use 
common builders' sand, and for seed-eaters throw in on the too 
