132 Song Birds. 



have succeeded. It is certainly alwa} r s doubtful if 

 Canaries and other hen Finches will agree to live 

 peaceably ; still it does answer sometimes, when then 

 are put into the aviary in established ^rt/rs, the couples 

 generally being faithful to each other, and each being 

 occupied in its own important work, just, in fact, as 

 if they were out of doors. If, therefore, any very 

 large bird is from the first excluded during the build- 

 ing season, very naughty or mischievous small birds 

 imprisoned, and only pairs of birds admitted, or a 

 number of Canary hens (or of home-bred Linnets, 

 which answer charmingly), the peace of the aviary 

 will be in the main preserved, and a great attraction 

 and interest added to it during the summer months. 

 It must be understood, however, that it should be 

 Canaries or Linnets, not both together, if put in in 

 numbers ; or in a divided aviary, Canaries on one 

 side, and Linnets and Goldfinches and other hens 

 with their respectives mates on the other, would be 

 very pretty. 



Any particular pair of any sort could be enclosed 

 in a breeding- cage, and it is well to have a few empty 

 cages of this kind standing open in case birds 

 formerly used to them may wish to build again in 

 them. But now, in proceeding to give a few hints for 

 the formation of large aviaries, I shall take it for 

 granted that it is an object that the birds should 

 breed ; and as I have been very careful to gain all the 



