A Southern California Aviary 149 



At that time we had not thought of importing birds, but with the assist- 

 ance of some of the neighborhood children, we tried raising young native 

 birds. We raised, among others, about a dozen Redhead Linnets, and right 

 here I want to tell a strange thing. The California Linnet is a pretty bird; 

 the male's head and neck are a deep red, which, shading into the soft brown, 

 makes an exceedingly smart -looking bird. This color does not show until 

 after the first molt, so you can imagine our surprise when we saw the 

 Linnets we had raised getting orange-colored heads. It must have been 

 caused by a lack of coloring-matter we failed to supply in the food, for 

 some old birds that we trapped, with perfectly red heads, changed to orange 

 when the molting time came. 



One learns a lot more by observation than by reading. We had very 

 little real knowledge of birds, so bought and read eagerly all we could find 

 on the subject; but we have, from our own experience, concluded that 

 most of the articles are either written from theory or from a study of speci- 

 mens of the taxidermist's art. 



About this time we went abroad, and in our travels saw many odd and 

 beautiful birds, so we decided to import some, which we did, and have con- 

 tinued to do up to the present time. I remember some little Finches from 

 India arriving one day with a lot of others; they were round, fat little 

 things, and made quite a fuss whenever they did anything, chattering with 

 a shrill, rasping voice. We had a neighbor at that time building, and he, 

 too, was round and fat, and made a lot of fuss and noise, so we dubbed 

 them "the Doctors." That was ten years ago, and that pair of birds are 

 the fore-parents of hundreds now, but we still call that variety "Doctors." 

 Birds have characteristics the same as people, — some are good-natured and 

 generous, others are crabbed, sour and mean. Watch a lot of them, and 

 you will see. 



We have raised birds which the books say never breed in captivity. We 

 study them, make guesses at their wants and try to give them the environ- 

 ment they would have in their native haunts. For example, some birds never 

 carry twigs; hence we must know that they don't build nests. For those 

 birds we supply compartments, put a little sawdust in the bottom and, 

 behold! — perfect contentment with no present indications of a race suicide! 

 We raise hundreds of Grass Parrakeets. For them we have trunks of trees 

 cut in sections and hollowed out, each section divided into from two to four 

 compartments, each with an opening about the size of a silver dollar. 

 These birds make no nests, but lay their eggs — some as many as six — right 

 on the sawdust in the bottom, and commence sitting from the laying of the 

 first egg, so that you will find, in the same nest, birds covered with pin- 

 ieathers and some just hatched. They are very cunning and make nice pets. 



We have a pair of Rose Cockatoos, also from Australia, but, as these 

 birds were never known to breed in captivity, we gave no thought to an 



