Some experiences xoith British softhills.



221



of food supply in those quarters ; but waxwings are omnivorous, no

sort of berry seeming to come amiss, except the holly. Examples

dissected by Mr. E. T. Roberts, of Norwich, had been eating elder¬

berries, bullaees, and hawthorn berries.



SOME EXPERIENCES WITH BRITISH

SOFTBILLS,


By L. Lovell-Keays.


After many weary months the winter is gone and I doubt if

any of us wishes for it back. I am sure I don’t. With the de¬

parture of winter and the advent of spring one’s thoughts turn, if we

are bird-lovers, to birds. Silently I creep round my vacant aviaries.

The very trees in them seem to have taken ghoulish shapes upon

themselves. The nests, with which were associated such lofty aspira¬

tions, such fluttering anticipations, wondering whether one would

succeed or not, these nests seem to reproach one and an inarticulate

voice cries out with unheard whisper, “ Where is my owner ? ”

Alas! I know not, and I hate the man who “claimed”—odious

term!—my favourite birds. I long to see them in their new quarters,

and wonder if their new owner will tend them as I did or leave them

to some hireling. But away with vain regrets. No need to bemoan

the past or speculate on the future. The present alone is ours.

How shall we fill these aviaries ?


Last year I asked myself the same question and I answered

it in this way. Why not keep some British softbills? The idea was

fascinating. Just fancy listening to one’s own private nightingale

and enticing your pet blackcap to come and warble to you ! In

imagination the Garden of Eden was already mine. My main aviary

is large, fully 70 feet long by 30 feet wide, with a tiny stream run¬

ning through (but alas ! not in mid-summer) and literally teeming

with insect life. How utopian for our avian prisoners ! What a

Mecca for our feathered friends ! A high-class weekly bird paper

was purchased and consulted. For a modest sum I could satiate

my wildest thirst for British softbills. Just for a start I wrote for

nightingales, redstarts, blackcaps, blue tits, yellow wagtails, long-



