Notes for the Month.



291



and such must be introduced into your aviary with the same timidity

as a new boy in a school. But apart from black birds many a val¬

uable or valued (which may be quite a different thing) bird has been

slain because a jealous bird has fancied be saw a dangerous rival in

another of rather similar colouring. For instance, a green cardinal

took a violent dislike to three half-masked weavers, and within two

hours of their being introduced in a very large thickly-grown aviary

had killed the lot. Another time a zosterops took a dislike to a hen

violet tanager and very soon her number was up. It is not by any

means a question of size ; and size is often no protection. Many

birds are terrible cowards and, still worse, bullies. However, an in¬

stance occurred not long since in which a golden-crested wren stood

up to a reed warbler and actually closed with its antagonist without

being badly hurt. The angelic little long-tailed tit is one of our most

courageous of birds, and stands no nonsense. It follows that, if

birds of similar colour won’t agree in the resting period, d fortiori

they will not agree in the breeding season. Don’t wait till there is

a tragedy, but catch one or other of the birds up and separate them.

Catching up is not such an easy thing as it sounds. The old or

rather most usually employed and advocated method is, I fear, to

use the butterfly net. It has one great advantage, i.e. from-the

bird dealers’ point of view, viz., that it is the worst. There are

several better methods. For instance, there is the “ flue net ” a very

fine net made with black cotton. With this the bigger the bird the

easier it is to catch them. They are driven into it and get

entangled. This is the system by which migratory birds are chiefly

caught. Another plan is to watch where the birds roost and then

catch them with the aid of an electric torch. They get dazzled and

are easily taken. Another excellent device is the common or garden

spring bird trap, where the bird alights on a platform and the lid is

thereby released. Aviaries, if properly constructed, should be so

devised as to render catching easy. The method I use myself is

very simple in practice and does not involve chasing the bird round

the flight with a net. I have no objection to a net just for clapping

over the bird in a confined space, say 8 feet by 3. What one does

object to is using a butterfly net, as a butterfly net, i.e. chasing ones



