I// RigJits Reserved. April, 1919. 



BIRD NOTES: 



__ THE 



JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 



A Californian Aviary and its Inmates. 



By T. F. M. Wtlt.tamson-. 



My aviaries were built about two years a,t;o. and. as T have 

 kept a consi(leral)le variety of 1:)irds in tliem with a considerable 

 amount of success, perhaps a short description of them and their 

 inmates may be of interest and use to some of our members, 

 even if they are situated so far away from Enj^land. 



I had better state here that the Southern Californian 

 climate, g'enial thoug"h it be, is subject to very sudden drops in 

 temperature, so that bird keeping has its drawbacks here as well 

 as anywhere else, and forei,q'n birds are just as diflficult to 

 acclimatise here as in Great Britain. I have kept birds in both 

 countries and have come to the conclusion that, ""enerally speak- 

 ing", birds which will not winter out of doors successfully in 

 England need not be expected to do so in California. Had I 

 realised this fact sooner T would have saved myself many 

 disappointments and some expense. 



T wish to say, too, that any remarks I may make about the 

 birds T liave kept are merely my own observations, and are facts 

 only so far as my own birds are concerned, and may not be 

 appropriate to others of their own species at all. Birds have 

 characters of their own as well as humans,, and these differ very 

 mucli in individuals. 



AviARiE.s : My aviaries are of the plainest construction 

 possible. Two of them are almost identical, except for the 

 size of the wire mesh used and the planting of the flights ; one is 

 devoted to the smaller and the other to larger species. In 

 both I have had to mix insectivorous and seed-eating species as 

 I lacked room for more aviaries, but the ideal thing would 



