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partially covered shed open lor at least the whole 

 extent of the front. All mj^ bird-keeping friends 

 were loud in their condemnation of my conduct. 

 " You will not have a bird alive by Christmas, &c., 

 &c." From time to time one friend, an eminent 

 publisher, who had been speciall)^ condemnatory and 

 who with middling luck kept his own birds in a small 

 glass house, called to see how I was getting on. As 

 may be imagined his surprise was great to find that 

 the coughers and wheezers managed to survive all the 

 bad weather and more than that actually to lose their 

 bronchial troubles. My own surprise came later on : 

 while the 3'Oung hens that I had carefully cherished in 

 the house all the winter and had treated absolutely se- 

 ctindum art 6771 consistently followed during the ensuing 

 season the example set by their mothers and aunts the 

 preceding summer, these barren hens, having then been 

 joined by some males, were building, laying, hatching, 

 and successfully rearing during the bitter weather 

 which we had in that particular March and April, 

 after going through their moult in the open and 

 spending the winter exposed to the fogs and frosts of 

 the Thames Valley. I need not say that since that 

 fertile experience, so accidently gained, none of my 

 hens have ever wintered in the house, or ever will 

 again. If for any reason I want to breed from any 

 particular females in separate cages, I catch them up 

 in the earl)^ spring and then bring them indoors. I 

 generally keep during the winter from twenty to 

 thirty hens in an aviary about lo feet by 4 in size, 

 which has the front and one end composed of half 

 inch wire netting. These are principally the birds 

 intended for hybridizing purposes, and therefore I 

 have running with them, in order that they may get 

 used to each other, about a dozen males of other 

 species. These latter include specimens of the Gold- 

 finch, Linnet, Twite, Redpoll, Serin Finch, Siskin, 

 and Greenfinch. In addition there are generally a 



