205 



Plave many instances been known of Bnllfinches 

 nesting in a bird-room ? Isabeli^a Bp^i.ford Wii^son. 



SPICE BIRD— BENGALESK. 



Sir, — It may interest some members of the Foreign 

 Bird Club to hear that I have bred the above cross this 

 season in my bird-room, the father being a Spice-bird 

 and the mother a Bengalese : the young birds are brown, 

 for the most part, but I see their coverts are beginning 

 to have a faintly spotted appearance, similar to the 

 breast of the Spice-bird ; in one only the under part of 

 the breast is white, with a white spot on the forehead 

 and under the chin. 



There are five of these interesting little birds : the}- 

 are about three months old and are wonderfully strong 

 and healthy. ISABEi^i^A BEI.FORD Wir.sON. 



OUTDOOR AVAIRIES— A SUGGESTION. 



Sir, — It has long l^een recognised as a fact that 

 foreign birds, even those supposed to be the most 

 delicate, will bear a surprising amount of cold and 

 exposure in outdoor aviaries, and will live very much 

 longer under such conditions than when kept in the care- 

 fully regulated temperature of a bird-room. Aviculturists, 

 I believe, have generally attributed this rather vaguely 

 to the " more natural conditions of life," or to the 

 '• greater amount of exercise " thus obtained. In the 

 light, however, of the very great success obtained by the 

 open-air treatment of tuberculous diseases in the human 

 subject, there can be, I think, no doubt that the true 

 reason is to be found in the influence of fresh air and 

 sunlight in preventing the development of consumption 

 and other tuberculous diseases in birds. The conditions 

 under wdiich consumptive patients live in the open-air 

 sanatoria are curiously similar to those of birds in aviaries: 

 while sheltered as far as possible from cold winds, they are 

 exposed to the open-air night and day in all weathers, 

 and the}' live, eat, and sleep in roonis from which all 

 windows have been removed. Under these conditions 



