every enclosure there are plenty of sheltering reeds and shrubs,

and grassy banks for the birds to walk about or sun themselves

on. The great charm of these ponds is the multitude of

specimens of many kinds that one sees, all looking happy and

all as if in their native haunts. Close by is the Pigeon Tower—

a really wonderful brick eredtion of several stories—for domestic

Pigeons.


Bearing back from the ponds, towards the entrance

gates, on the right side we soon come to perhaps the most

interesting of all the houses, the new great hall, or rather series

of halls, devoted to the Parrot tribe and to various other birds

which require heat. In the autumn of 1893, I found this great

structure already partially tenanted, but still unfinished and too^

redolent of wet mortar. In 1896, I found it finished and

garnished, and the various halls appropriately warmed for their

occupants. I wish many of the birds could be less closely con¬

fined, but of course it is very difficult, next to impossible, to

show such a number of races, save in some way caged. The

first hall, like the rest of them, is entered through glazed doors ;

it is airy and spacious ; on the right side is a handsome enclosure

for exotic water-birds. The water is evidently kept at a suitable

temperature, and in and around it are rocks for resting-places

the most striking of its tenants was a Roseate Mexican Flamingo,

in lovely plumage and condition, which was taking its bath with

evident pleasure. I do not ever remember to have seen water-

birds from warm climes housed in such perfedt comfort. I fancy

there is an arrangement by which in summer they can be let out

into an outside enclosure. From this hall, a few steps lead up to

the next, kept at a higher temperature ; it, too, is lofty and airy,

but less spacious than the entrance hall. On the right side are

ranged a row of fine cages in which birds of some size can take

exercise. I specially observed some handsome Green Touracous,

always so adtive, comic, and attractive in their ways. On the left

side are many tiers of cages, varying in size and chiefly tenanted

by small birds—lots of the Waxbill tribe and other well-known

pets. Several Tanagers—Crimson, Superb, and others—looked

at home and happy : certainly in the feathered creation there is

little more exquisite than the Tanager family, and sorely tempt¬

ing it is to see them offered now-a-days at such moderate prices ;.

but I have never yet given way to the temptation, for I fancy,

save the Crimson, they require much warmth and much care

in the preparation of the substitutes for their native fruity

and insedt diet. The cage, of all others, which pleased me in

this house, was one full of what the French call Diamants a ailes



