The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-12-21
homes FOR THE BIRDS.

/
homes FOR THE BIRDS.
Few Pr acticaI Suggestions I'm Regard
to the Construction OF Avisries.
From the Forest and Stream
Several years since, we. were so stu
ated as to be able to rear from the nest
some of our native birds, and the expe.
rience so obtained gave US ideas which
may be useful to our readers. The oc-
cupation is not only most delightful,
but is useful as well. Pleasant it must
prove to all, and useful to many. In
no way can an incipient naturalist bet
ter acquire correct ideas of the habits
of many of our feathered friends, and,
aside from its usefulness in this respect,
more pleasant engagement, and more
sympathetic and affectionate pets il
would be hard to find. OF course time
and place are important factors, which
oppose themselves to many who may
be DESTROYS to start on a venture.
One must be a rural inhabitant
in the first place; no successful
private aviary could be kept up
in city, fresh air, sunshine, and near
ness of healthy food, being requisites
Time to devote to our birds, particu
larls while growing, is especially neces
sary. We have sometimes given food
to very young birds rs often as every
hour of the day. This is, perhaps, not
absolutely essential, but the aim should
be to follow nature as closely as posi-.
BILE, and parent birds in their native
state, devote almost their whole day tC
their progeny when quite young, ex
cepting perhaps the two hours of noon
day heat. You must remember thai
you stand wholly in loco PARENTS to the
nestlings, and should make yourself en-
tirely familiar to them. As to the con
struction of the abode, naturally its
size depends on your allotted space
OF course the larger the better. The
sides and top of the aviary should be o.
wire netting, that of half inch square
much the bestj the shape square, built
on a wooden platform, elevated an incl
or more from the floor of the room
and placed on wooden castofs
so as to be movable fol
purposes of cleaning away the dust
which will accumulate underneath
it. The platform or floor should ex-
tend beyond the sides of wire foot al
least-we are speaking of an aviary
seven or eight feet square-to catch
sand and feathers that are scattered
about; the floor should be covered with
sheet zinc, and coarse sand strewn upon
this to the depth of an inch. 1t seems
to US hardly practicable in so small al
affair, costing not more than $40 tC
make arrangements for nesting, and
more elaborate provision would be ne
cessary for such an undertaking. Nc
deciduous trees can be kept alive in an
indoor aviary, as the birds will soon
strip them entirely of their leaves. We
should suggest full branched, leafiess
tree of small size, for center piece,
and as many evergreen shrubs, arbOr-
vite, spruce, ETC., as possible, both
within and without Upon the projection
of the platform, to give seclusiOn and
places of concealment for the inmates
A low door, say four feet in height,
should be cut on one side for ingress
and exit.
Now, with what birds can we popu.
late their future home? Those most
easily reared are such as we see most
abundsnt about US. The robin, blue
bird, wood-thrush, brown-thrasher, or
red thrush, golden-winged wOodpeck-
er, Baltimore oriole, orchard oriole,
red-winged blackbird, bobolink, and
various birds of the finch tribe. All of
the above are reared from the nest with
but little difficulty. While young the
greater variety of food given the birds
the better they will thrive. For the
thrushes some portion should be ami
NAL food. Worms and minced meat
together, with biscuit, crackers soaked
in milk or water, Indian meal, fruit
and vegetables in season, strawberries,
cherries, young green peas, etc. For
the orioles, bits of raisins, figs, green
peas and fruits. Prepared mock
ing-bird food can be pur-
chased at any druggists, and is
a good diet for almost any bird. Dur
ing the winter worms and fruit are
scarce or wanting, and at this season
your birds may be fed on minced meat,
Indian meal, the prepared food and ca
nary seed, for any finches you may
have, as indigo birds, or SOng-sparrows;
raisins and figs should never be want
ing. The blue-birds, thrushes, hi-holes,
make the most congenial pets, and Of
ten, in years gone by, have we stood the
delighted center of an interesting circle
of the above birds, performing in most
approved fashion the Office of parent
to them, woodpeckers creeping up the
quasi-tree trunk, our body, blue-birds
sitting jauntily on shoulder,
head or arm, robins and
thrushes clinging to whatever foot
hold they could reach, and with culver
ing wings and plaintive appeal beseech-
ing for a m0uthful of their morning
fare.
Wearing Apparel.