Tur Zootocist—OcrToser, 1872. 3237 
Birds in Aviaries. By Bouguton Kynepon, Esq.* 
Havine for many years kept and bred different species of 
Australian parrakeets and other birds, it is with no little interest 
that I have read Mr. Newman’s first part of “ Memoirs of my Bird 
Cage,” and with much pleasure [ accept his invitation to give a 
few rough records of my experiences, failures, and successes. 
I have learnt to distrust a great deal that I read in books of 
Natural History, and “ Answers to Correspondents” in periodical 
publications: only the other day I saw in a well-known journal, in 
answer to an enquiry as to the preparation of a nest for a pair of 
budgerigars, “Give them some dry grass, moss, and wool!” The 
authority, no doubt, kept canaries, and thought he could not be far 
wrong if he advised the little parrakeets to be treated in the same 
way. 
As a rule, Australian birds will be found much hardier than they 
are generally supposed to be: they will live and flourish all the 
year round in an out-door aviary, provided they are sheltered from 
rain and cold winds. I have had several aviaries, large and small. 
If I-can, I take advantage of a verandah, and enclose the front with 
galvanised wire netting, three-quarter inch mesh:—at one end I 
put up a small room or closet the width of the aviary, eight feet 
high and three or four feet wide; there is a pigeon-hole about 
half-way up for exit and entrance in the winter; the door has a 
large pane of glass, and is kept open during the summer; it is 
fitted up with perches, and is only frequented by the birds in cold 
windy winter weather; at the upper part of the back and end walls 
of the aviary I fix up two or three cocoa-nut husks, as depicted so 
well in the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 3160), and a few small boxes, four 
or five inches deep, five to seven inches wide, and one to one and 
a half foot long, with covers which can be opened, and a small hole 
towards the top of the centre or one end for the passage of the 
birds: these I half-fill with saw-dust,—the birds prefer laying on 
* Tam extremely gratified to find by this and the following communication that 
the subject of birds breeding in confinement, or in a state of semi-domestication, is 
likely to receive publicity. There is no doubt that wild birds of many species have 
been reared successfully for many years, but the mode of treatment and the results 
obtained have rarely been made known. This seems to be a most interesting branch 
of Zoology.—E. N. 
SECOND SERIES—VOL. VII. 3A 
