ii8 
Hints for Beginners. 
a handful of fine flint .yrit, such as is sold for young chickens. 
Newly imported birds are better at first without grit, which 
should be given to tliem cautiously in very small quantities and 
in the form of rougli sea-sand. The reason for this is that the 
birds ha\ e been kept without ,L;rit for months, and their internal 
organs have liecome soft and liable to be punctured by sharp 
flint. 
I have always been an advocate for giving the smaller 
birds a feed by artificial light in long winter evenings. Some 
people have em])hatically denied the utility of this. T do not 
know that I, or anyone else, ever asserted it to be essential to 
the life or well-being of the birds — but T do assert it to be an aid 
in keejiing them in health through the winter. My usual plan 
is to turn on an incandescent gas-light in the bird room for a 
quarter-of-an-hour or so about nine o'clock. When I turn it 
out I leave a smaller light burning for a time to enable the 
birds to find their perches. 
In the feeding of soft-billed birds, I really think the con- 
sistrticv of the food is quite as important as the materials of 
which it is composed. Birds will not thrive on a pasty mess, 
however rich it may be in ants' ggs and other good things. T 
believe this is the reason why l)irds often thrive better on one of 
the advertised foods sold i-^ tins than they do on home-made 
food, although the bought food may contain a large proportion 
of (lerman paste, crushed hemp, and other things of more than 
doubtful digestibility. Tt is never wise to moisten food by the 
addition of water, as one is very apt to make it too wet. It is 
far better to soften it l)y the addition of bHled potato or grated 
carrot — though I nnich ])refer lard or drippmg for the purpose. 
If you use potato or carrot, you must be careful to throw away 
the leavings from the previous day's feeding, an^ to put the 
fresh food in a clean pan. But the food mixed with .i<-ease will 
kcp good for weeks. 
Some people imagine that if a bird be fat it must be in 
;ood health, and that the fatness is a proof that it has been fed 
on suitable food. Fatness is no more sign of health in a bird 
rhan in a man — and our aim should be to keep our birds in good 
