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Correspondence , Notes, etc.



noticed it with Weavers ; though they often hang head-downwards

clinging to the wires of an aviary. A. G. Butler.



LOVEBIRDS, ETC., FOR COLD GREENHOUSE.


Sir, — I would be very pleased if you could tell me if Madagascar

Lovebirds, Nuns, Java Sparrows and Cutthroats would live in a greenhouse

without steam heating all winter, we have very little snow or frost ? Could

you also tell me of some other small birds that would live in cages in the

unheated greenhouse? Wiei.ie H. Workman.


The following reply has been sent to Mr. Workman :


In times past I have kept all the birds you mention in a covered

aviary, one side of which was only protected from the open air by a canvas

screen : the aviary at that time was unlieated, and the thermometer in the

winter frequently registered a few degrees of frost (on one occasion as many

as twenty-one degrees): I lost very few birds from cold, and those that did

die from that cause were chiefly British birds.


In a greenhouse the cold would not be so great as in my aviary as it

then was, therefore doubtless the same birds would live ; whether they

would enjoy their life is another matter : as I concluded that it was hardly

fair to subject birds from warm climates to a temperature which was

painful to myself, I filled in the open side of my aviary and introduced a

radiator : the result is that if my birds desire to breed in the winter, fewer

suffer from egg-binding.


The Weavers, the Common and Green Amaduvade Waxbills, the

Parson-finch, (and probably' the Long-tailed Grassfincli) are not susceptible

to cold, though I suspect they all prefer warmth.


A. G. BuTEER.



HYBRID SINGING-FINCH, ETC.


Sir,—I do not know whether the following facts will be worth

recording in the Avic. Mag.


Last autumn or winter I purchased two newly'-imported Singing-

finches, one a grey', the other a green. I kept them indoors until April,

tlieu I turned them out into au aviary'. They soon went to nest, the Green

one being the cock, and the Grey' the hen. They built a pretty' little nest

of fine grass, on a foundation of fern leaves, in a Hartz cage, and laid four

eggs which all proved clear, so I removed them. The hen, in less than a

week, laid again in the same nest, without apparently altering it. She laid

three eggs, and this time two proved fertile and hatched out, but one young

one disappeared; the other they successfully reared, and it is flying about,

strong and healthy, now in the aviary'. It has the marks of the Green



