Aviary Pheasants. 



inclosure the whole, not more, say, than 6ft. by I2ft. 

 is ample for a pair. 



As regards Gold, those persons who do not wish 

 to breed them can always have a lovely pen of birds 

 at a very moderate cost, by buying young cocks and 

 letting them come to full plumage in their own 

 aviaries. By so doing, they will have birds challeng- 

 ing the admiration of all. I generally have twenty, 

 sometimes twenty-five, adult cocks in one aviary, and 

 they are a glorious sight, with their almost ceaseless 

 motions, as they dance round each other, first dis- 

 playing their tippet or collar on one side and then 

 on the other. These birds I keep in an open aviary 

 in fact, it is one of my large portable ones ; it is 

 placed in the carriage drive, exposed to every weather, 

 and in a very cold situation, the ground being on 

 the banks of the Wye, and facing hills which, from 

 October, 1885, for nine months, were, I believe, 

 not one week without snow. The birds roost in the 

 open, and I am frequently amused by being asked 

 " how I take them in of a night," &c. People seem 

 to think that, because they are Chinese birds, they 

 must be natives of a hot climate, and unable to bear 

 cold, forgetting that there is plenty of cold as well 

 as heat in China. I think that, bringing up birds 

 as I do, and not coddling them, I get the "survival 

 of the fittest;'' in other words, my stock is strong 

 and robust. As a matter of fact, I seldom lose a 

 bird except from accident. 



Much may be done with very small means. It was 



