Hoii' I Became Interested in foreign Hirds. 85 



kxte, appears to be giving the members of the F.B.C. a rap on 

 the knuckles for the apathy apparently shown towards the 

 Journal I will attempt to make a small contribution in the shape 

 c 1' my experience, and how I became interested in Foreign 

 Bird Keeping. 



From my earliest days I was always a lover of nature and 

 liad not arrived in my teens when I possessed a cage full of 

 modest little Redpolls. My memory goes back to the time 

 when I first saw an Italian with Budgerigars in a cage trained 

 to pick out your fortune. From that time onwards I always 

 had a keen eye for the beautiful plumage of foreign birds. 

 J chanced one day to come across an advertisement of a book on 

 Popular Farrakeets, that could be easily kept and bred in 

 outdoor aviaries. This aroused my curiosity sufficiently to send 

 for a copy, wdiich I devoured from end to end. I decided to 

 start with a few Budgerigars. At this time I was keeping 

 fowls, and was not long in clearing out my stock and having 

 the house reconstructed and fitted up as an aviary for Budgeri- 

 gars and Cockateels; and here began my experience of pleasures 

 and disappointments. 



The aviary being completed 1 set to work to procure a 

 few Budgerigars off a dealer. I purchased two or three pairs, 

 as I thought. These turned out to be all young cocks, and 

 being, undoubtedly, freshly imported. I turned them out too 

 early, and they departed this life one by one. This was my 

 first disappointment, but not sufficient to deter me from going 

 on. I afterwards learned I made a mistake in buying newly 

 imported birds, so procured some aviary-bred specimens, which 

 I succeeded in breeding, much to my delight. 



I found Budgerigars could be very pugnacious when 

 they liked; I once had a Cockateel scalped by a Budgerigar. 



My next venture was with a pair of Cockateels. I gave 

 the order for a pair, and, after repeated calls at the shop, the 

 birds duly arrived. I, of cotu^se, expected birds with feathers 

 on but, to my surprise, these birds were absolutely naked, with 

 the exception of a few qtiills on the top of the head where the 

 birds were unable to pull them out. I w'as naturally very 

 disappointed at the sight, but was calmly assured that the birds 

 were quite healthy, and in an aviary the feathers would soon 



