TREATMENT OF SMALL BIRDS ON LONG VOYAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1073, 23 April 1867, Page 3

TREATMENT OF SMALL BIRDS ON LONG VOYAGES.

We have much pleasure in giving effect to the wish of the council of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, by reprinting an article which appeared in the Field, of November 3, 1866 on the best means of preserving small birds at sea. We trust that any member of our community who may be acquainted with the subject will bo induced to'correspond with us and to point out any special adaptations which can bo made of the general directions to New Zealand purposes. We arc compelled to omit the diagram of Mr. Bartlett's cage which accompanies the original article, but in other respects we give it cutire:—

In the lucid, of October 20, wo published the admirable instructions issued by the Zoological Society for the transport of pheasants and other gallinaceous birds. The loss of insectivorous and l'ruit-eating birds during long voyages is greater even than, that of granivorous birds, amounting sometimes to the entire number shipped, and, even under the most favourable circumstances, to a high percentage ; we therefore think it desirable to publish the following thoroughly practical advice on the transport of thrushes aud other " soft-billed" birds, principally taken from a paper by Mr. Bartlctt, the experienced superintendent of the Zoological Society's Gardens. Ucgent's-park. Sir. Bartlctt states that, in attempting to carry out this object, the greatest attention to the comfort aud wants of the birds is essentially necessary to securo success. They must be provided with sufficient good and suitable food, and with changes of food, aud also with such cages as may best enable the persons who take charge of them to keep them clean and feed them with the least difliculty. Before obtaining the birds, it is necessary to have a small room or aviary prepared for their reception as follows :— Place in and about the room, especially in the corners, perches or bushes for the concealment of the wild birds ; have a fine netstrained|over the window, to prevent their striking against the glass, let the floor be sprinkled with, grit or small gravel. About the floor throw fruit (apples and pears—ifdecayed, the better),chopped meat, bread crumbs, worms, snails, &c.; and place in thelightestparts of the roomone or two shallow pans of water. A few tame thrushes or other birds accustomed to the food will also be found of great advantage. Everything being ready, the birds should be placed in the room as soon as possible after capture. Before turning them loose into the room, cut ofl'with a pair of scissors the first six feathers of the wings and also the tail; but do not cut them so short as to injure the hollow quills. The object of cutting the wings and tail is,—lii'st, to prevent the birds dashing about and injuring themselves ; and, secondly, to render them tame sooner, and ready to go into the small cage without the tail ana wing feathers becoming covered with filth, as they would do if left of their full length. This cutting of the wing and tail feathers renders Lhc birds unable to ily (for a time only, as all birds moult their feathers at least once a year), and not only prevents injury to the bird, but makes its recapture easy if it cseapes from its cage. Place about the floor of the room a few of the cages in which the birds arc to he confincd, leaving the doors open, and placing food inside, so that the birds may go in and out, and thus get accustomed to the cages before the doors are closcd upon them. By this treatment they arc never much reduced, or in any way weakened, as is sure to be the case if they arc put into small cages when fresh caught.

It is always a little difficult to get birds to J'eed immediately after their capture; but tlio above method has boon found to answer admirably. It is of the greatest importance that they should not pitic or get weak, as they seldom quite recover, but frequently linger for months after. Experience during a long course of experiments, undertaken with a view of ascertaining upon what food these birds might be best kept in perfect health and good condition, has led to a recommendation of a much larger number of articles of food than is perhaps absolutely necessary ; but talcing into consideration the chances of any accident or delay that may happen on board slap, it is well to know by a fair trial what can be used without risk. At the same time it is certain that, the more the diet is changed and varied, ihe greater are the chances of success in keeping the birds in good health, taking into consideration the nature of their food in a wild state, varying, as it must do, at different periods of the year. The articles recommcndcd are as fellows .-—

Vcc/elable substances.—¥cns and pea-meal ; barley, wheat, oats, or Indian corn ; rice, whole or ground ; fruit of all kinds, fresh or dried, raw or cooked ; potatoes cooked; carrots, raw or cooked; bread, biscuit, bran, or pollard; and hemp seed.

Animal stibs'anccs.—Meat, fresh or cooked, of any kind, except salted; liver, prepared according to instructions : eggs, boiled; and insects. In order to prepare the quantity of food required for a large number of birds, two machines are recommended—a miucing or sausage machine, and a coffee-mill. The necessity of these will appear by looking over the list of food, and the manner of mixing, See. Not only is the' amount of labor much reduced by the meaus of these machines, but the food is more easily prepared and better adapted for the birds than can be done by hand.

The diiferent sorts of moal mentioned may form the basis of-the food, and the other ingredients may be added, sucli as meat, fruit, &c., according to circumstances and the judgment of the person who lias charge of tlie birds, as a change of climate and circumstances may lead to variation m their condition, which must be carefully attended to. The quantity of food required for each bird is about one ounec and a half per day, with about a wine-glassful of water. In very hot weather, however, a larger quantity of water is requisite. Peas, ur Pea-mcul. —Perhaps the best method of using pen-meal is in the form of German past"?, viz., fried with fat or oil, to which may bo added sugar or treacle. In this way it may bo kept a long time in tins or earthen jars. It can also be used in many other ways —:for instance, mixed witlunoi.se food, such as soaked bread,meat, fruit, potatoes, or carrots. The peas can be soaked or boiled, and then ground and mixed with other food ; in fact, ground peas afford a good wholesome diet, and can be strongly recommended for all birds that will eat them; aud as they can be prepared in several ways, they are almost indispensable. It may be desir.ibie to add a recipe for German paste as made by Mr. Hugh Hanly, who has been unusually successful in keeping migratory birds :—7 lbs pea-meal, 2 lbs coarse Scotch oatmeal, 1 lb moist sugar, Is lbs beef dripping, Ilb honey (or good treacle, or thick svrup), 2 quarts hcnipseed, and 1 pint mawseed. Melt the dripping and honey in a saucepan and pour it over tlie meal and sugar, rubbing it well between the hands, so that there may be no lumps. When thoroughly mixed, place it in a flat tin dish in a slow oven till thoroughly heated through. Should the oven be too hot, it will bake it to a hard crust, which would spoil it. When suflicientiy done, spread it on a board, and having previously well crushed the hempseed, and blown away as many of the husks as possible, mix it and the mawseed well with the paste, breaking any small lumps that may have formed in the baking. When cool, place it in an earthen jar, and it will keep good for months." Ground JJarlcg, Oats, T; heal, and Indian Corn soaked or bulled (before mincing).—lYny of these can be used, aud, mixed with fruit or meat, Slc., form a good and wholesome food. Care is necessary not to give too large a quantity, especially when ground into line Hour, as_ it is liable to get too cloggy. The introduction of bran or, butter, pollard (line bran) will prevent this; but always use meat, fat, or fruit when flour is used.

Bico is best used with pea-meal, or sonic oilier food. By 110 means attempt to use it alone. Boil it until soft, and tlien mix with meat, fruit, meal, &c.; or it may bo fried in fat or oil, after having been boiled to make it soft. Ground rice can be mixed after having been scalded; but it is better to boil it until it is well done. Bread, Biscuits cj'f.—ln feeding with these if the bread or biscuit be stale, or hard and dry, scald or soak it in water until quite soft, then rub it up with pea or other meal, until the required consistence is obtained ; and add meat, fruit, &c., if thought desirable, according to the condition of the birds. Hempseed.—For many birds this seed is inTaluable. It must not, however, bo used too freely; for its stimulating power is apt to produce disease. Mix it with sceldcd or soaked bread, or other soft food, having pre\ iously ground or well bruised tlio seed. The reason why this is advised is, because some birds w'l not cat the seed whole, and, on the other hand, some will pick it out from the other food, and cat nothing else. This seed is strongly recommended in moderate use, and a drooping bird will frequently bo recovered by it. Care must be taken to see that the seed is good, which may he always ascertained by bruising it. When crushed it ought to be quite white inside, and oily ; if yellow or brown, it is rank and poisonous. Many valuable birds are lost by using bad liempseed. Bran and JPolhtrd.—Experience has shown that these may be used almost constantly. The birds are prevented from becoming too fat during their captivity by mixing bran or pollard with their food. These articles aro especially good when mixed with meat, boiled rice, fruit, or fat. Fruit, raw, cooked, or preserved. — Fruit of almost any kind appears to answer well, and, when prepared and mixed with ;tny ot the other ingredients mentioned in this paper, forms an acceptable food. There can be no doubt of the beneficial effects of such fruits as apples, pears, oranges, raisins, figs, currants, &c. The best manner of using them is to mix them with meal, bran, or flour, and to pass them through a mincing-machine. In this way they aro chopped tine enough to mix with the other food, and the admixture of the meal prevents the loss of the juices of the fruits. Potatoes and Carrotx.—Potatoes require to be boiled or baked, and then ground or mixed with meat, fruit, meal, &c. Carrots may be boiled and then mixed ; they answer very well instead of fruit. Carrots, we may remark, may be preserved a long time by cutting out their crowns and keeping them in moist sand. Meat.—Flesh of almost any kind, raw or cooked, will answer (alwaj-s avoiding that which has been salted). A small quantity of fat is not objectionable, but it must be well mixed with meal. TJver. —Fresh animal food is not always at hand, and liver is found to agree well with the birds. It can be prepared in the following way :—Cut a bullock's liver into slices, boil it half an hour, pass it through a mincing machine, place it in shallow dishes or tins and put it into a slow oven until quite dry. In this state it may be kept in tins, or still better in jars, and for any length of time. JEfff/i, boiled hard and chopped fine or ground, aro excellent for most birds, and can be mixed with almost any kind of food. Birds arc apt to refuse the hard-boiled white of egg, unless it is rery finely divided. A convenient mode of doing this is by turning a rather coarse meshed wire sieve upside down, and rubbing tlio egg through, when it becomes a moist granular mass that is eaten without waste.

Tiisecfs.—Tliesc are eaten by most birds, and a few, sucli as earthworms, caterpillars, meal"tvorms, flies, maggots, grasshoppers, &c., are good for them. l)o not however adopt the too frequent use of living food, as birds are apt to crave after it, and refuse to eat what is prepared for them. Snails can be kept for a long time : and as they form a large portion of the diet of thrushes in a -wild state, their use is rocommonded, as they can be chopped up and mixed with the other kinds of food. And dried ant's eggs, if procurable, are of great value. Cheese can be occasionally given, but sparingly In the event of liver or other animal substances failing, ground or minced cheese, if free from decay, will answer, mixed with the other food. With regard to the food of birds during a sea voyage, it is important that it should be fresh mixed, especially in hot latitudes, or the boiled rice, carrots, or other vegetable substances are apt to turn sour rapidly. It is also necessary for the perfect health of the birds, of whatever kind, that their cages should be cleaned daily, and no refuse food allowed to remain ; indeed, cxcept in the case of dry food, more should not be given at a time than the bird will consume at once. It is necessary before concluding, to add a few ivords about the cages more suitable for containing the captives during the voyage. Each cage need not be more than 8 in. square ; the bottom part being formed like a tray, ly in. deep. In the front part of this tray is a division of 1:V in. wide ; this division is again divided into two parts, the one on the right 3s in. long, the one on the left 4i-in. long—the former coated with pitch and made to hold the -water, the other division to contain the food . These trays or bottoms are made to hook on to the cage by two liooks and eyes, the bottom of the upper part of the cage being furnished with bars across, from side to side, close enough to prevent the bird getting through. The front part of the cage, over the feeding and water trough, is carried an inch more forward at the bottom than the back or _ sides of the cage, thus enabling the bird to obtain the food without difficulty while the food and water arc by this projection kept clear of the dirt of the bird. A percli also is required, nearly in the middle of the cage from side to side._ Gravel, sand, grit, or dry earth is always required at the bottom of the cages. Fresh air and ventilation should be secured on board ship as much as possible, but caro shotdd be t&kcn that the birds are not exposed to the salt spray. Large birds should be kept in cages on deck in warm latitudes, if scoured from the latter contingency, but on no account should they be exposed when the weather is damp or foggy, or their loose, ruffled plumage and listless attitude will soon show that thev are chilled.