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I found that entering an aviary with a net frightens and upsets the

birds in a dangerous manner. Broods would become infallibly disturbed.

We easily lose sight, in the general turmoil, of the one individual whose

removal has become necessary, even at the risk of accidents, which are

more than likely.


When I wanted to catch a bird I never used a net, but entered my

aviary very quietly, armed with a pot of tepid water and my gardener’s small

liot-house syringe. My birds knew me, and did not mind much my coming

among them. I waited quietly until the bird whose capture was desired was

in a favourable position, and easily marked him with a well-directed stream

of water from my syringe. A second douche was easily applied and brought

him down, when he was caught by hand, put in a cage in readiness, and in

a quarter-of-an-hour the bird would be dry and feeding again as if nothing

had happened. In this way I avoided all accidents and any very great

excitement. I see no reason why an aviary should not be more than io feet

high, and would not mind having one 15 feet high and even more.


To have flowering plants in an aviary is impossible. To have climb¬

ing plants like honeysuckle, ivy, or Virginia creeper (c) outside the wire

and overgrowing the aviary would be pretty, but end in disaster. These

plants would only help mice, rats, stoats, cats, and other enemies of the

birds to climb all over the aviary.


The only plants which I found possible to keep alive inside my

aviary were: ivy in pots, arbor vitae, and holly. All these can be obtained

of large size at reasonable prices, but they should be well established

before the birds are put into the aviary. I should be half inclined to try a

weeping willow, if there is time to plant a big tree and to allow the roots

to become well established, for it will always be a race between the tree and

the birds, whether the birds will destroy the buds and shoots faster than

nature develops them. But even a dead weeping willow would be useful

to Weavers.


A pair of Grenadier Weavers once built a most beautiful nest in mv

aviary in the top of a straggling holly tree, and brought up a brood of five

young. I could never understand how this interesting family and their

mother found room in their nest.


The floor is best made of cement, as a protection against rats and

mice (to be afterwards covered with gravelly sand) as suggested by Dr.

Butler. But perhaps a third of the floor might be laid out with garden

mould. I would try this, and sow it with a rough kind of fast growing

grass. This grass would of course soon be pulled up by the Weavers, but,

by keeping half or one third covered in rotation with a small forcing frame,

successive crops might be obtained with advantage.


It is not advisable to keep any Finches with Weaver-birds; but

Thrushes, the beautiful African Glossy Starlings, or small Indian Pagoda

Starlings, Mocking-birds, Mynahs, and such birds have been kept by me

with Weavers in the open-air parts of my aviary, without accidents. The

very pretty small Chinese Quails, or the graceful Californian Quails, might

also live in the company of Weaver-birds. Aug. F. Wiener.


(c). I have any amount of Virginia creeper in and on and all about my aviary ; the

birds delight in it, but the cats do not. The birds delight also in the balsam and common,

but not in the Lombardy, poplars ; and these not only live but flourish.—R. P.



