Notes on a Few I'Vell-htown Species. 6i 



Notes on a Few Well-hnown Species. 



By Edward J. Boosev. 



First of all I feel I owe an apology to the readers of this 

 article, who will think to themselves — as I am sure a great many 

 will — " What on earth does this fellow want to write an article 

 about such very common birds for?" 



I agree entirely, but I hold a certain official of the 

 Foreign Bird Club responsible for the outrage in suggesting 

 that I should do so. 



At the same time T feel tliat in the long run it may do 

 good in making other members, who possess really valuable 

 and much more interesting birds than mine tnink. " Well if he 

 writes an article, having only kept such ordinary birds, why 

 shouldn't /?" — Resuic, perhaps, more " copy:" 



It is only during the last eighteen months that I have 

 been able to take up foreign bird keeping at all seriouslv. 

 Before that I was undergoing that rather misnamed process 

 " Education," at a private school, at a public school, and finalK' 

 abroad. -Louring all that time I kept birds off and on, but only 

 the more common kinds, because, as I was away for eight or 

 n'ne months of the year, it seemed useless to buy anything at all 

 expensive. 



My first birds were kept in a crystal palace aviary in the 

 nursery when I was eight years old. 



They consisted of a varied selection of Waxbills, Avada- 

 vats generally predominating, and a pair of Pekin Robins. 

 They always seemed to be in excellent health, which, although 

 they led such a dull existence, usually seems to be the case with 

 Waxbills kept in a cage indoors. 



Later on I worried my father so persistently for an 

 outdoor aviary, that in the end he built me one, mainly, T think, 

 in self-defence ! 



My idea of an aviary in those days was a small brick house, 

 heated by hot water pipes. The hot pipes seemed to me then 

 all-important for birds which lived in a hotter climate than our 

 own. Accordingly, a small brick house was erected joining 

 a peach-house, and the hot pipes were brought through the 

 v/all into my aviary. In this I kept Waxbills, various Manni- 

 kins, Java Sparrows, Pekin Robins, Paradise Whydahs, Melba 

 Finches, Cutthroats, Zebra Finches, and Red-headed Finches, 



