136 Practical Bird-Keeping. — II. The British Warblers .


experience goes all the Warblers, except the hardy little Black¬

cap, and I may add the majority of the smaller insectivorous

species are-better for a little heat in the winter. Only the other

day I found a very fine Yellow Wagtail in a cold aviary in a badly

collapsed condition after a night of hard frost. It was so weak

that it was only with the greatest difficulty it could swallow a

mealworm and it would undoubtedly not have survived another

night in the open. I caught it and placed it in a heated aviary

and in two days time it had perfectly recovered.


If we decide to heat our winter aviary we still have to

consider whether our Warblers shall be confined solely in the

heated portion, or whether they shall be allowed access to the

outer flight. Some years since I determined to give the former

system a good trial and I accordingly built a small house

measuring 12ft. long by 8ft. wide by 7ft. high, the sides being

entirely of glass and the roof having two glazed lights, each 3oins.

by 24ins. of double glass with an air space between to avoid loss

of heat. One side is planted with large clumps of Bamboo and

Eucalyptus; on the other side is a large quarantine cage, a small

division for invalids and an apparatus for rearing Quails. The

foundations are of brick and are mouse-proof and the large

ventilating windows (each qfeet long) are screened with mouse-

proof netting. The pipe-area is large and the temperature

averages 65°. Last winter I quartered all my Warblers here and

the result was most promising. Every sunny morning there was

a continuous chorus of song, the Lesser Whitethroats contribu¬

ting the tenor parts, the Greater Whitethroats the baritone and

the Garden Warblers, whose song closely resembles the Black¬

birds’, the bass. To enter this little aviary on a bleak, chilly

morning was to pass in a single moment from mid-winter to

mid-summer. All the Warblers moulted successfully and, when

I turned them out in May, they were in the pink of condition.

Then came the disappointment! The weather was cold, espec¬

ially at night. The first day or so all went well. After that

there was no more singing and I saw clearly that something was

wrong : they seemed to be getting light-headed, flying aimlessly

about and striking the netting or hanging head downwards from

the roof of the aviary. I caught up two or three and replaced



