i_'6 -1/_V /[z'iarics — 1(^2^ Notes. 



three miles away; others liave been reported ten miles away,, 

 and still others thirty miles away, across Strani^ford Lough,, 

 bnt these, of course, 1 cannot vouch for. 



Tracjkdv : The rest of my story is, alas! tragedy. The 

 day before yesterday 1 missed my beautiful Pope Cardinal and 

 instituted a search through the aviary for it. Amid a mass 

 of long tangled grass, to my horror, we found a dozen or more 

 wings of young birds, chiefly budgerigars, in runs all through 

 the grass ; so we gently drove all the birds into the cottage- 

 shelter — then we put the terrier in the flight, who soon found 

 his way to a very rotten log, containing a number of holes. In 

 the topmost one a Cockateel was incubating six eggs; the 

 terrier was very excited, and. barking loudly, after about half 

 an hour, he dislodged a rat from a hole in the log just under- 

 neath where the Cockateel was sitting — it took another half liour 

 to catch him. for he ran up the wire and jumped about the 

 bushes like a squirrel. The wire netting of the aviary is sunk 

 in two feet of concrete, so no rat can get in from underneath; 

 the wire netting is. however, twenty-five years old, and I am 

 afraid that some of the branches swayed by the wind may have 

 made a hole somewhere, as yet undiscovered. We have cut all 

 the grass short, Init found no trace of another rat, nor yet any 

 hole of ingress, so the matter remains at present an unsolved 

 mystery. All this refers to number three division of my aviary 

 where I keep Whydahs, Weavers, Saffron Finches, Cardinals, 

 Glossy Starling, Pekin Robins and Baya Cowbird — all live 

 amicably together. 



In number two division I keep Waxbills (several species), 

 Siskins, Singingfinches, Pekin Robins and a Combasou, which 

 also agree together perfectly. 



In number one division there are Pekin Doves, Bull- 

 finches, Goldfinches. Red-headed Finches. Cutthroats, Snow 

 Buntings and a Shore Lark. 



There are a good many mice in the aviary, but we keep 

 these dowai by means of the poison box. 



Outside in the Park : Here, by the pond. I have about 

 five acres wired in. consisting of woodland, grass and water, 

 and within this enclosed space (no wire over top) live r Great 

 Stork, 2 Egrets, i Little Egret, 3 Crested Screamers, and i pair 



