Correspondence , Notes , etc. 375



and I had thought that there would be time enough if I saw signs of

fighting.


Now, as I want to buy some more, I shall be glad to know which

kinds will agree together ; for instance, could I make a wire division down

the length of the run, and keep two male Amliersts on one side and two

Golden on the other ? The females are such plain birds I do not care to

have them ; and I do not like the idea of only two Pheasants in a run — it does

not look full enough.


Before I had an Amherst, my three Golden males (which were of one

brood) never fought; is this a general rule, or is it only Amliersts and

Golden that will not do together ? Octavia Gregory.


The following reply has been sent to Mrs. Gregory:


1. The case of the Amherst cock killing the Golden — I have found

Amherst’s very" uncertain : some are amiable, some far otherwise. I should

be always afraid of trusting an adult Amherst cock with any other cock.


2. I have known Golden cocks live quite amicably together, as long

as there are no hens with them, or near them ; but even then in the

breeding season they' have sudden fits of passion. Much depends on the

space given them. My own pheasantries are very' large, and there are

many ways of escape for a persecuted bird. The safest method when cocks

are kept together is carefully to watch if one bird shows an inclination to

persecute others; cut one of his wings sharply,, and take care that there are

plenty of perches, or better the top of a shed or two, on to which the

persecuted can fly, and where the persecutor cannot overtake them.


3. It is not solely' that Amliersts and Golden will not do together;


there are savage examples of both races, but I have found Amliersts the

worst. O. E. Cressweee.



AVIARY NOTES.


Sir, —I wrote last year, and gave my experiences of breeding

Virginian Cardinals. This year, at the end of April, they' went to nest.

I did not remove the cock bird, and he helped the hen, and brought up

two fine young birds. The last two years when I left him in the aviary he

ate the voting ones, so this is the first year he has not been taken away. The

next nest, built in the same cage-box in the inside of the aviary, contained

three young birds. [The parents fed them till they left the nest, which

they always do when half feathered; it was a very' cold day, and one

left in the nest, with no feathers on, died. I picked up another nearly

dead, and returned it, but it got cramp ; this, and the healthy one, I brought

in and liaud-fed, the same way as I reared one last year, but the cold day

must have been too much for them, for they both died. A pair of Popes I

bought last winter were in the other aviary adjoining, with a pair of Green



