What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes Part 42

Stillman.

Mice

Mice should have a cage with two compartments, one of which should have a door in the woodwork but no wires. In this room should be a bed of hay. The natural food of mice is grain, but in captivity they are generally fed on bread and milk and slices of apple. They can be tamed to a small extent, but for the most part they do no more than run round a wheel, although if other gymnastic contrivances are offered them they will probably do something with them. Dormice (to whose food you may add nuts) sleep through the winter months, and are therefore not very interesting for more than half the year.

Turtles

A turtle is rather an interesting animal to keep, although he will not do much in return. Even in summer they have a curious way of disappearing for weeks together, and in winter, of course, you see nothing of them. An ordinary mud turtle is often seen moving slowly along the roads after a rain. He can be carried home by turning him over on his back--but be careful to keep your fingers away from his snapping mouth. As a rule they can feed themselves, and they also have the happy knack of doing without food altogether for long periods, so that you need not be anxious.

Fish

Bowls of goldfish are not uncommon, but few people seem to care for fish of other kinds. And yet a little aquarium can be stocked for a small sum and is a most interesting possession. One small tank of young bream, for example, can be a perpetual and continually fresh delight. Let the tank have cloisters of rockwork and jungles of weed, so that hiding may be possible, and then watch the smaller fish at their frolics. Young trout are hardly less beautiful, and very easy to keep healthy, in spite of general opinion to the contrary. The important thing is to maintain a current of water through the tank.

The old way was to carry the overflow down a pipe in the centre through its surface opening, but an improvement on this system is for the leakage to be at the bottom of the tank and the inflow at the top.

Young perch are beautiful too,--and tench, and dace, and roach,--and all are hardy. Feeding them is very simple. The shop from which you buy the fish will keep you supplied with the proper food. The American catfish, with its curious antennae or whiskers, and its gleaming eyes, set as by a jeweler, is more wonderful, and not a whit more difficult to keep. But to be amused by such unfamiliar neighbors as a tankful of fish there is no real need either to stray abroad or to spend any money. The ordinary minnow, which you can catch in any stream and pop into a jar, will serve to introduce you to a new world--a world of silent progressions, of incredible celerities, of amazing respirations.

Silkworms

Silkworms, if kept at all, ought to be taken seriously and used for their true purpose. That is to say, you really ought to wind their silk carefully. Few owners of silkworms in this country seem to trouble to do this. Silkworms' eggs can be bought of any naturalist, or some one who keeps silkworms will willingly give you some. The time is about the end of April. They are usually laid on sc.r.a.ps of paper, and these you put in shallow paper and cardboard trays covered with gauze, and place them in the room where the sun can reach them. As the worms hatch out you must move them--it is done best with a small paint brush--to another tray or trays and keep them supplied with fresh mulberry leaves or lettuce. The worms continue to grow for about a month, and then, when full-sized, they prepare to spin. You may know that this time is reached by their refusal to eat, and you must then make a little paper toilet, about two inches deep, for each worm, and drop it in. You have now nothing to do (except to watch the worms regularly) for some weeks, in which time the coc.o.o.n has been finished and the worm has become a chrysalis. When the chrysalis inside the coc.o.o.n rattles the time has come to wind the silk, or the moth will shortly emerge and eat it. The outside of the coc.o.o.n is useless and can be removed by placing the coc.o.o.n in warm water. Once that is out of the way, the silk can be wound on a card. The moth soon afterward appears and, after growing to its full size, lays its eggs--some two hundred--and dies. It must be remembered that with silkworms a little practical demonstration from any one who has kept them is worth much more than many pages of hints. One thing is of the highest importance, and that is constant attention. Silkworms must never be neglected.

Other Caterpillars

Silkworms are more useful but not more interesting than many other caterpillars which can be hatched from eggs. The Privet Hawk Moth, for example, is very easily bred, and a very beautiful creature it is when in full plumage. But for information on this subject you must go to more scientific books.

Pigeons

Pigeons are not exactly pets, for they rarely do more than come to you for their food, just as chickens do, but they are beautiful creatures and no country roof is quite complete without them, and a dove-cot is a very pretty and homely old-fas.h.i.+oned object. Usually, however, the birds are given a portion of a loft. Whatever the nature of their home, it must have separate compartments for each pair of pigeons and must be warm. If a loft is used there should be sand or gravel on the floor, with a little lime to a.s.sist the formation of the sh.e.l.ls of the pigeons' eggs. The place should be kept clean, and you must guard against rats and cats. Pigeons eat peas and pigeons'-beans and most kinds of grain. If they fly loose they will find out other food, such as green meat, for themselves. But if you keep them at home you ought to give them some. They should have a dish of water in a regular place. New pigeons should be shut up by wiring in their house for a fortnight before you give them their liberty, or they will fly away.

They do not care for hay or straw in their boxes, but will make a nest in their own way when they need one. Pigeons are of many kinds, the commonest of which is perhaps the Runt, and the prettiest a white Fantail. Any one who takes up pigeons except merely for the pleasure of owning one or two should read up the subject carefully.

Doves

Doves, which are happier when kept in pairs, require the same food as pigeons. As a rule they are kept in wicker cages. They are not very interesting.

Parrots

Parrots are most companionable pets, and, next to a dog, quite the most interesting and intelligent. They are always cheerful: whistling, singing, and talking. The gray parrot is the best talker, and speaks much more distinctly than any other kind, but the Blue-fronted Amazon is more amusing and far better-tempered as a rule. These birds are very beautiful, with bright green plumage and touches of yellow and red, and a blue patch on the forehead. The best food for parrots is parrot seed, on which they may be fed entirely, and they should never be allowed dainties except nuts, fruit, and a little piece of sugar.

In the summer time sprinkle your parrot with water through a fine hose every morning, but in the winter do so only when he asks for a bath by trying to get into the water basin. As to talking, parrots will pick up far more readily any words they hear by accident than any that you set yourself to teach them. They will also get by heart in this way a few bars of a whistled tune. When parrots are apparently spiteful it often proceeds much more from nervousness than from vice. If frightened they will peck anything near them. It is important to have a thick baize cover for your parrot's cage, and to put this over it directly the lamps are lit.

Smaller Cage Birds

Before coming to the different kinds of birds which you can keep, a few general words about their care ought to be said. Remember that with them, as with all pets, the most important of all rules is perfect cleanliness. The best cages are wooden ones with unpainted wires, and the perches should be of different thicknesses, as, if they are all one size, the bird is likely to get cramp in his feet. Once in a week at least the perches and tray should be scrubbed with very hot water with soda in it, but they must be dried thoroughly before they are put back into the cage; therefore if possible it is best to have two sets of perches and to use them alternately. A thick layer of red sand or sh.e.l.l gravel should be sprinkled on the tray, and occasionally a pinch of maw-seed thrown on it.

Baths

All birds should have a bath given them. They like best a shallow gla.s.s dish, which should be put in the cage when the tray is out. It is a good plan to put a biscuit-tin lid on the floor of the cage to prevent the bird from making the woodwork wet. Other rules in the care of all birds are--never let them be in a draught, but do not keep them in a very warm place. Cover them with a white cloth at night, and in cold weather put a shawl over that.

Food

Seed-eating birds do best if they are fed on canary seed and a little summer rape, with now and then a few hemp-seeds, some Hartz mountain bread, and a bit of groundsel or water-cress that has been well washed. If they look dull and sit in a puffed-up little heap, a drop of brandy in their water often does good; and, should they show signs of asthma, try chopped, hard-boiled egg, with a few grains of cayenne pepper, and a bit of saffron or a rusty nail in the water. These are also good when the bird is moulting. For insect-eating birds you must buy meal-worms and ants' eggs, and thrushes and blackbirds need earth-worms as well.

Tricks

Some birds are easily taught tricks. We remember a red-poll who would draw his water up from a well in the cage in a little bucket; but if you teach your bird to do this you must be careful to watch him, in case the string gets twisted and the bucket does not reach the water, when your pet will suffer terribly from thirst. He will also learn to pull his seed-box up an inclined board if you put it day by day a little farther from him, so that he must draw the string to get his food. It is better to take a long time in training birds, and tempt them with any dainty they care most for, such as water-cress, groundsel, chickweed, or hemp-seed, as otherwise you must starve the bird first, or he will not trouble to get the seed. This means a certain amount of cruelty and cannot be right.

Canaries

The favorite cage-bird is the canary, which, though a foreign bird, is kept in this country in greater numbers than any other bird, and is also bred here. One has to be very well posted up in the nature of the bird to be protected against deception when buying it; and you ought therefore, in getting a canary, to find some one competent to buy what you want.

Canaries must be kept carefully. They cannot stand much air. Be particular that the cage does not hang in a draught, and let it be large enough for comfort. When evening comes it is kinder to take the cage out of a room in which there will be much light and noise, and put it somewhere dark and quiet, as the air of a room where gas is burned is not good for it. But if moving the cage is not convenient, lower it to a position below the level of the burners and cover it up with a thick cloth. By day the cage should be hung in the suns.h.i.+ne if possible, but if the sun is very hot a green gauze cover ought to protect the bird a little. If the bird's singing is too l.u.s.ty--as sometimes happens--a handkerchief thrown over the cage will check it; but this seems rather hard treatment.

In feeding canaries follow the rules on p. 356, but you may put a lump of sugar between the bars now and then, or a sprig of groundsel or water-cress. Do not give them cake; it is no real kindness.

When they are moulting, canaries (and other birds too) need rather more attention. Give them a little richer food, such as chopped-up eggs, and put some saffron in the water. There is a kind of insect called the red mite which often attacks canaries. It is not the rule by any means that canaries should be thus troubled--many escape--but it may happen. If you cannot account for the bird's despondency in any other way, catch it and look at its skin under the feathers of the breast and the under part of the wings. If there are little red spots, it means that the red mites have found out the cage, and you must wash the bird every day with a weak solution of white precipitate powder--about twelve grains to a small gla.s.s of warm water--and either wash the cage too with a stronger solution, or, if it is a wooden one, destroy it. Now and then you ought to clip their claws, if they seem too long.

The Love-Birds

The love-birds feed almost entirely on millet or canary seed, and they like a sod of gra.s.s in their cage. They are bright little birds, but are naturally very wild and need much petting if you wish to tame them. Once tamed, however, they are very confiding and amusing.

The Cardinal

One of the most beautiful of cage-birds is the red-crested cardinal.

He is quite hardy and eats seeds and insects impartially, thriving on canary, millet, and a little hemp-seed, with meal-worms now and then.

He should always have a very large cage, or he will spoil his plumage.

His song is sweet and strong.

Wax-Bills

Wax-bills eat millet-seed, canary seed, and a little soaked bread and sponge-cake.

Other Foreign Birds

Java sparrows are pretty creatures, although they do very little for you. Perhaps the most attractive of small foreign birds is the avadavat, a tiny, perky little soldier. These live quite comfortably together; and indeed, if it is permitted, you should certainly, for the non-singing birds, have a large cage and keep many such birds in it rather than put them in small cages. They will be far happier.