Aviaries. 247 



and delicate companions. Robins, Titmice, House 

 Sparrows, etc., are often quarrelsome and murderous, 

 and persecute the other birds exceedingly. 



For myself, I should not care to keep English birds 

 in an aviary. I infinitely prefer putting baskets and 

 warm nesting-places into a sheltered outhouse, where 

 the birds may find food during the frost and snow of 

 winter, and can enjoy their liberty at the same time, 

 allowing them to come and go at their pleasure. It is 

 a mistake to expect any birds to live happily in a very 

 open aviary, unsheltered from the extreme heat of 

 summer and cold of winter. When at liberty, they can 

 find protection from both in their native coverts, and 

 although they may possibly exist through the winter 

 exposed to a chilling east wind, they suffer extremely 

 from it, and will often mope in corners, rufHe up their 

 feathers, and refuse to sing till a gleam of sunshine 

 comes to revive them. The glare of a noontide sun, 

 too, in the height of summer, is exceedingly painful to 

 birds which are exposed to its fierce rays, without the 

 means of finding shade. Many of the tropical birds 

 sleep during the extreme heat of midday, and con- 

 tinue the custom for some time after they are brought 

 to England : doubtless they resort to the deep recesses 

 of their magnificent forests, and find shelter in their 

 luxuriant foliage, when the sun is at its meridian in 

 their native lands. 



An aviary constructed of two compartments, one 



