3 10 The Irish Naturalist. 



These produced one or two broods last year, and I fear that 

 there are several broods this year ; but I cannot catch them, 

 without frightening all the other inhabitants, and so they 

 escape expulsion. One fellow is rather a rarity, having two 

 white feathers in each wing. Of L,arks I have had several, 

 and still have a pair ; but only one ever distinguished himself 

 as a songster, and he died during the snow of last winter. 

 All my I^arks, however, after a short time in the aviary, are 

 perfectly well able to perch, which seems to be opposed to 

 what one usually hears of their habits. In this aviary there 

 is no tit-bit so earnestl}^ desired by all the birds I have men- 

 tioned as wood-lice, locally known as slaters. The Jay, 

 indeed, prefers beetles, and the Cockatoo looks on with in- 

 difference ; but to see the commotion amongst Starlings and 

 I^arks and Thrushes, one would imagine no other food had 

 been given them for a week. 



Of Doves I have several kinds — the Common Ring-dove, 

 the Turtle-dove, the Stock-dove, the White Japanese Dove, 

 and the Egyptian Dove, the latter being like the common 

 Ring-Dove, but suffused with a rosy hue all over the body. 

 I^ast year the Stock-doves brought out one young dove, as 

 did also the Ring-doves ; but both young birds died, whilst I 

 was away during my summer holiday. This year the Stock- 

 doves have fully reared a beautiful pair of young ones which 

 I presented to the Zoological Gardens ; and all the other kinds 

 were to be seen hatching. Indeed one of the most singular 

 spectacles possible to imagine was to be seen in the aviary ; 

 for, in a very capacious nest on a tree branch, there were six 

 Doves' eggs, and on this nest, seated in harmony, a Turtle, a 

 Japanese, and a Common Ring-dove. 



In building my second aviary I took advantage of the angle 

 between two walls, so that there was perfect shelter from N. 

 winds, and the wire netting was only on the S. side. I also 

 boarded more than half the flooring of the aviary, in a sloping 

 manner, so that the birds have always got dry footing to rest 

 on below as well as on the perches. I also placed a number of 

 boxes, cocoa-nuts, &c., in suitable positions for nesting ; but 

 here, as in the other aviary, my birds greatly preferred their 

 own to my arrangements. Not many, however, ever con- 

 structed nests or laid eggs except a pair of Bullfinches and a 

 pair of Budgerigars — these latter being indefatigable in that way. 



