98 TJie Endurance of Birds. 



the Sugar and Sunbirds could undoubtedly," whereas it should 



read, aviaries are built on gravel, or gravel ami chalky are 

 in an. 



It is not by any means easy to assi^^n the causes of 

 the various disasters and losses which assail an aviary, or 

 rather its occupants, in the course of a given year or even 

 years; andi it is too often equally difficult to provide a remedy 

 for such; the remedies, though effective up to a given point, 

 often iprove contributory to other disasters in their turn, e.g., 

 keeping birds sheltered during the winter months, too often ren- 

 ders them very susceptible to sudden changes, especially the too 

 often bitterly cold nights of early spring; when many hens are 

 lost from " egg-binding " arising from chills — one point stands 

 out quit^ clear, viz.: thci harder we can keep our birds the 

 better for them, and the percentage of loss from climatic 

 conditions will be reduced to a minimum. But keeping 

 them "hard " does not necessarily imply exposing them to all 

 and every change the English climate inflicts upon them, 

 neither does the line of safety imply a heated shelter and 

 oonhnement therein ^during every inclement spell; by so doing 

 we only increase their susceptibility to every chilly blast that 

 blows, whenever they venture^ as they often will, into the open. 

 Wherein, then, lies the happy medium? 



I hope to be able to indicate in the course of this in- 

 stalment, what tmy experience leads me to consider this course 

 to be ; , but, we must recognise that though we may reduce 

 the danger from clmratic conditions, below that of birds at 

 liberty upon their native heath, yet the danger from abnormal 

 unseasonable weather cannot be entirely eliminated, neither 

 can any deduction which I may draw be considered final, for 

 real aviculturists, as well as those which follow us, will be 

 scholars to the end of the chapter, and unless wc arc mere bol- 

 sterers up of theories, the experiences of the next few yars may 

 (I don't say will) cause us to entirely revise present day 

 mediods. For the present it will not be well for us to advance 

 beyond experience — the course of safety should be along the 

 paths it (experience) indicates. 



Take the cliarming (despised by some, because it is 



