Delicate 
Birds. 
( I 55 ) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
Delicate Birds. 
By F. FINN, B.A., F.Z.S. 
One of the greatest puzzles—I may add one 
of the greatest annoyances—of the aviculturist 
who likes to keep a variety of birds lies in the 
delicacy of some species. There are some birds 
which, if you put them on an ordinary seed 
mixture suiting their type of feathered creature, 
or on one of the “ good stock mixtures ” for soft 
bills, if they happen to be of that persuasion, will 
thrive apace, while others will incontinently die 
off with greater or less expedition. 
Pioneer Aviculture. 
Now, it has long been my conviction that if 
you really want to keep a given bird you can, 
and so, whenever I have heard that “one couldn’t 
keep so-and-so,” I have always yearned to go 
and do it. And I had some good opportunities 
of this in India. The Indian fancier swears by 
“ satoo,” which is pea-meal (really meal, not the 
very fine flour we use here for thickening soups). 
This he makes up into a paste with water for 
coarse-feeding birds, and ghee (clarified butter) 
for more delicate ones. Anyhow, “ satoo ” is 
the usual thing out there for everything that 
eats soft food. 
An Unfortunate Barbet. 
The Indian Barbets are birds which, as a rule, 
do well in captivity. They are fruit-eaters, and 
take kindly to the satoo substitute. But the 
commonest of these Barbets, and about the 
prettiest, the little “Coppersmith,” or crimson¬ 
breasted species, was, I was told, impossible to 
keep. After a few days it got “ thick,” and soon 
died, if one tried to keep it. So convinced of the 
hopelessness of keeping the Coppersmith were 
the bazaar dealers that I often got them to give 
me a bird, they admitting that they knew it 
would die on their hands. 
The Difficulty Solved. 
Considering that Barbets never see satoo in 
the wild state, it struck me that a return to 
nature might be advisable, so I procured newly- 
caught Coppersmiths and fed them on banana. 
On this I found they lived and continued to do 
well, and I reared the young on this diet. 
Specimens so reared I gave to my chief, who 
kept a few birds, which had bread and milk as 
a standing dish of artificial food, not satoo. The 
Coppersmith partook of this—they had fruit as 
well, of course—and did well upon it also. It 
was then obvious that there is something in 
satoo which does not suit the constitution of this 
particular species. Yet, be it observed, it is 
good for most soft food eaters, so that one should 
not really condemn an article of food because 
some delicate species cannot do with it. 
A Paradoxical Oriole. 
It will be observed that the commonness of a 
bird is no criterion of the ease of keeping it. A 
similar case is that of our Blue Tit, which is 
not by any means “ a good liver ” in captivity, 
although so widely distributed and common 
when wild. Similarly, in India, I found that 
the Black-headed Oriole, although the com¬ 
monest species of Oriole, in Bengal at any rate, 
seemed a very hard bird to keep. Fledglings 
were often brought in and old ones caught, but 
seldom indeed did one find an established cap¬ 
tive. A friend of mine in Calcutta had one, and 
some time back one was actually brought over 
here, and lived for some time at the Zoo. Here, 
again, I suspect the satoo diet does not suit the 
individual species. 
Why Some Birds are Delicate. 
My theory is that some species can do without 
their natural articles of diet better than others, 
but one cannot tell this without experiment. 
Generally speaking, large birds will assimilate 
strange foods better than small ones, and omni¬ 
vorous feeders better than those of more limited 
diet. This is natural, because the food of the 
larger species is of a grosser nature, and the 
stomachs of omnivorous species naturally adapt¬ 
able to varied foods. Yet one must remember 
that the omnivorous Tits are not the easiest of 
subjects, and that the Dipper, a good-sized bird, 
is so difficult a one that no one has as yet kept 
a specimen a twelvemonth. 
The Dipper Difficulty. 
I have seen old-caught Dippers “ meated off ” 
at the Zoo, and it is a great puzzle why they 
“ pop off ” so. But, when one comes to think of 
it, no diving bird is an easy subject for cap¬ 
tivity, except the Cormorants and Penguins, 
both of which naturally spend much time in 
reposing ashore. With the Grebes, Auks, and 
Divers there always seems to be some difficulty 
in keeping them alive, and this, I think, applies 
to the Dipper also. I believe the reason is 
simply that they miss the violent exertion in¬ 
volved in forcing themselves below and through 
the water, and so get generally out of condition. 
The Importance of Exercise. 
The vast importance of Exercise was shown 
me in the case of the Bhimraj, or Rocket-tailed 
Drongo, in India. Few of these birds, many of 
which were brought to Calcutta every season, 
newly hand-reared, survived a year in the hands 
of the natives, yet this Drongo is a big, stout¬ 
looking bird, and easily fed. The reason why 
