36 
HINTS ON CAGE-BIRDS. 
mentioned ; but, as the young begin to feather, great quantities of 
insects are given, sometimes regurgitated, sometimes merely broken 
up. Bullfinches and Grossbeaks prefer bushes to anything else. 
I found that the White-throated Finch suspended its lace-like nest 
high up in a furze bush which I had fixed in the wall ; it was 
formed of the finest tough willow fibre (most dangerous to other 
birds, which are liable to get hung up in it). 
I have had more nests built by Waxbills in bushes than in any 
kind of receptacle ; but green Avadavats built and laid in a cigar 
nest-box, and would probably have hatched out if they bad not 
been disturbed. A Cordon Bleu, paired to a Grey Waxbill, built 
in a Hartz cage in 1902, but without result. 
The Grass Finches and Mannikins seem to prefer cigar nest- 
boxes and Hartz cages to anything else for building their nests in ; 
The Habtz-cage as a nesting receptacle. 
some of them, like the Waxbills, succeed best in rearing their 
young if supplied with a certain amount of insect food, such as 
living ants’ eggs, small green caterpillars, cut-up mealworms, or 
blight from rose-trees ; others, like the Zebra Finch, Ribbon Finch, 
Diamond Sparrow, Parson Finch, Java Sparrow, etc., do very well 
upon moistened egg, biscuit, and dried ants’ eggs, or even on dry 
Madeira cake. 
To be successful in breeding Whydalis and W eavers, one ought 
to enclose part of a broad dike, with reeds and rushes in situ. 
Many of the Weavers will build, and sometimes even lay, in bird- 
room and covered aviary ; but hatching and rearing the young in 
such enclosures are rarely successfully carried out. A similar 
arrangement to that proposed for Whydahs and Weavers, but with 
the addition of a strip of wild meadow land, ought to suit the Marsh 
Birds and Meadow Starlings, but the Hangnests would require 
branches from which to suspend their nests. 
Most of the true Starlings build in holes, and should be supplied 
with suitable covered boxes, hollow branches, or log-nests, with 
