Foreign Birds for Cage 

 and Aviary. . 



PART II. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I commeuc© this puitioii oi my work with less canii- 

 ■deiioe .and satisfaction tiliau when 1 started upon 

 Volume I., because, in some of the groups to be dealt 

 with, I hiave not- l>een lnx>ught into pcvsonsvl contact with 

 .any of tthe species, and in others I have only kept one or 

 two:' nevertheless, siiue I wrote Part II. of •' Foreign 

 Bird-Keeping." a good deal of additional information 

 has been published" i-especting the habits of Uiese birds, 

 both at lilvea-ty and in captivity ; and, when one can 

 ciuote the iwperiences of otlier trustworthy observers, 

 it i.s almost .as satisfactory to oneself, and certainly 

 •quite as much .so to one's "readers, as if one described 

 what one had personally observed. 



Since the smaller book appeiared. birds formerly 

 regarde<I as of extreme rarity in private collections 

 have ibeen much more freely imixjrted ; so that, in a 

 •gener.rl work upon the imported Foreign Cage-birds, it is 

 no longer iK)ssible i>r advisable to JJa.-s tliem over. In 

 the case of the Humming Birds, though a good many 

 have been imported, none have lived long enough to 

 rendtr them popular, and the general opinion seems to 

 be that thev will never be suited to aviary-life in thia 

 bleak and o'ften sunless country. I think myself that a 

 jrdii'ious .selection of tbo.se species which occur at great 

 ■.iltitndee. where cold and snow are by no means un- 

 knomi, might readily ^ie acclini-ati.^ed hei-e, provided 

 that the birds could be induced to feed upon some 

 rational .=oft focd, instead of tlie cjuaint combination of 

 lieef-tea and s_\Tup hitherto providetl fur them. Any- 

 how-, ae matters stand, I see no utility in including 

 Humming Birds in the present work: but the Bower 

 Birds, Paradise Birds, Crows. Pittas, Woodpeckers, 

 Colifis. Kingififlhers. Toucans, Barbels, and Touraooois 

 can no longer be ignored. 



The question; is whether it is correct to regard any cf ■ 

 the Game-birds, however small, as cage-birds; that tliey 

 have been exluilbited in cages at bird-shows cannot be 

 accepted a.s evidence, because the same is true of Rails, 

 Plovers, and various birds of prey. I think myself that 

 it would be more corret-t for the smaller G.ime-birds to 

 he included -with the larger, and the Rails, Plovers, 

 #tc., ill a separate work prepared by someone specially 

 qualified to write ui>on them. It .seems to m© to be 

 absurd to regard those birds as cage-birds which nobody 

 ■over keeps in a cage. It may be argued thai, ae a 

 general rule. Doves are kept in a\-iai-ies; this is un- 

 doubtedly true, but it is by no means unusual to see a 

 pair in a large cage, and eome of them may even be 

 ■bre<l in such an enclosure. 



As in Vol. I. the Findies occupied the greater portion 

 -of the text, so in Vol. II. the lion's sliiare falls to the 

 "Tarrole. Most of the species described are of large size, 

 and therefore (excepting in the case of the Doves, whicli 



'" ns, I 



* Of th« Sta.rliiiga, howerer, with whioh this volu 

 liavo had a fair number of species. 



sometimes scare, but never injure, birds of other orders) 

 are for the most pai-t more suitable for cages or moderate 

 sized flights than for aviaries; unless a man be wealthy 

 enough to devote an aviary to each tj-pe. 



In the case of the Starlings, they become mucli tamer 

 and are far more engaging when Kept' in cages than in 

 aviaries; in the latter, with smaller uirds, some of them 

 are inclined to be aggreL,¥ive, as the Crows always are ; 

 the Larks, if kept lur their song, are far better caged; 

 the Sulphur TjTant can only (be trusted with birds as 

 powerful as himself; the I'aiTots, unless intended to 

 breed, should all be kept in separate cages. 



As with the species treated of in. Vol. I., the insecti- 

 voruue feeders are uiidoubtedlly the most interesting, but 

 they also occupy the bulk of the time whitli can bo 

 tie\oted to one s pets, owing to the necessity of daily 

 preparing fresh sofffood for them; the Parrots are per- 

 liaps the most popular, on account of their startiing 

 colom-s and the power of speech which many of t.hem 

 possess ; but, until acclimatised, they are liable to go off 

 with lung trouble, ci-amp, or intlamniiition of tire uvtr 

 or bowels, the latter being ue.uailly due to improper feed- 

 ing upon sioppy messes and ;uiimal food. It is true that 

 one group of Parrots (the Lories and Lorikeets) appears 

 to thrive, at any rate for a year or two, upon a diet 

 which would -speedily prove fatal to most other Pan-ots, 

 but I am not at all sure that even these would not be 

 far better il thev could be confined to a less sloppy 

 diet with the addition of plenty of soft fruit : Canon 

 Dutton suggests scalded fig masiied up with bmi. 



For anyone not particularly anxious for song, but 

 with a keen eye for colour, the Doves are by far the 

 best bii-ds to take up. I must have both, and therefore 

 il has ibeen necessary for me to keep all kinds of cage- 

 birds. Nevertheless, I find Doves very charming, not 

 because they axe reputed to be harmless, and are to 

 other birds— for among themselves, with the exception 

 of the At'rican Bronzewings, which are always anuable, 

 thev aa-e the most vindictive of all birtls, not only pluck- 

 ing" out feathers wholesale, but doing their utmost to 

 pull out one another's eyes if -pairs of several species are 

 kept together. This, howevea-, happens chiefiy during 

 the breeding season, for at other times most of these 

 birds are ali.-olutely apathetic. 



In the cafe of illness, prevention is better than cure; 

 treat your birds properly; feed them correctly, and 

 as the rustics sav. ""they'll live till they die, 

 if nobody don''t kill "em"; but if you begin 

 to take lip with fads, and reject eertaui excellent 

 foods because under certain conditions, they may 

 be suitable for the cultivation of injurious micro- 

 organismti. vou will oidy have .vourselves to thank if 

 vour birds "die young. 'One thing cannot be too often 

 repeated, and that is. in the case of any indisposition in 

 an insectivorous bird, the finest medicine consists of two 

 or three garden spiders; if you cannot get these, look 

 in boxes and pots for hunting spiders. 



