H. N.—Natural versus “ Cleaned ” Seeds



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Midlands at times sends to me what are called screenings. These are

what are left after they have thrashed the corn. At first this stuff

came cleaned, but I asked for it dirty and I will explain why. One

day I was in a common sort of corn shop where they sell corn and

all kinds of feed for horses and two gentlemen came in and took away

in their car some small bags of sweepings and each man gave the

attendant 2s. 6d. When they had gone the attendant explained they

were gentlemen from the University and they wanted the stuff to trace

the insect life. Now I have a friend in Scotland who has a farm, and

for years has caught up wild birds, put them in rough wire aviaries,

and had no end of luck in breeding, and he twice a week gets a shovel

and gathers up a fresh cow “ flap ” and throws that in the aviary, as

it attracts all kinds of live stock and the birds want them to feed their

young on. I have hard- and soft-billed birds together, and in one aviary

have a Thrush, and there is one Canary which actually scraps with

that Thrush and takes its mealworms from it. I have wee Waxbills

that struggle with mealworms, so that these seeds, all the more if there

is insect life clinging to the seeds, are naturally essential to the food

of the birds. Again, I have a Parrot, this being the only bird in the

house. She is at liberty all day and is mostly on the top of her cage

when in the house. She is taken to the slop stone in the washhouse

under a dripping tap each morning and there is a gardener’s saucer

there if she wants a bath, which she takes about three times a week.

Then she is placed on the lawn in the garden, when she invariably

goes to where there is some loose soil and messes up her beak and

feet. Finishes up by climbing a fruit tree and then is brought back

to the top of her cage. So she is a dirty beggar also in her feeding

habits, grovelling in the soft dirt in the garden, but she is in perfect

feather, and does not attempt feather plucking. Incidentally, I have

a tree branch about 15 inches long and about § inch in diameter, which

I keep and she perches on it when being brought to and from her

cage. At one time when I followed the rules of the book and had

all clean and spick and span I had great success in picking up dead

birds each day. Now it is rare and invariably the result of an accident,

and I have definitely come to the conclusion that both British and

foreign birds want dirt to revel in.



