My Aviaries and Birds. 221 



Last AuffU'^t T ooinmonrod to huild my first aviary, 

 20 feet hy 10 foot, and of coiiiso it liad all tho faults it rould 

 have, not sufTioiont shelter from the Avind, and a most inade- 

 quate shed, and, in consequence E lost a fair number of birds. 

 Profiting by experience, I doubled the size of it, boarded up 

 one side and added a new shed, putting in hot water pipes, since 

 when all has gone well and T have lost very few birds. 



Not yet satisfied T built another, about 70 feet long by 

 1 1 wide, except for a space of 1 5 feet. Avliere it is 20 feet 

 wide, and about 15 feet high at top of gable; the sbed being 

 finished fiilst T used it as a heated bird-room during the winter. 



As to breeding results, so far they have not been very 

 great but look like improving now. 



Last year I had only a short time, but bred one Zebra 

 Finch, which was a very welcome addition. 



January 1st saw four nests in the heated bird -room— 

 Bicheno's (Stictopfera hiehenovi) , and Cuban Finch (Phonipara 

 canora), Firefinch (Lagonosticta seneqaJa), and Gold-breasted 

 Waxbill (Sporargi)ifhi(s siihflarus), all had eggs, but that is 

 as far as they went. 



On January 22nd a young Diamond Sparrow (Sfrpano- 

 plrura gnffafa) appeared, very much to my surprise, in the 

 out -door aviary, but it died a week later. 



March 2nd saw the parents again with young and three 

 young birds flew on the 24th, fine healthy birds which lived 

 all rigbt. The parents and also another pair in the same aviary 

 now began to build again, one egg was laid and deserted, and 

 this I put under a Bengalese, who hatched and half-reared it, 

 when she died and so T lost the young bird. 



The Diamonds then gave up until June 24th or 25th, 

 when both pairs began to build feverishly, using seeding 

 grasses which I (had supplied that day for the first time, to try 

 and save the grass in the aviary, and now botb pairs are, I 

 believe, incubating. 



My next young to leave the nest were Silverbills (Aid- 

 emosyne malahorica). four young of which flew; the same day 

 the heating apparatus caught fire and in consequence had to 

 be 'repaired. Although this only took twenty-four hours, all 

 the young died. Four eggs were again laid but proved 



