42



For water I made a concrete basin which I swill out every two or

three days, and in frosty weather hack out with a joiner’s adze. The floor

of the flight is covered several inches deep with sea sand. In this aviary I

have bred, besides Cockatiels and Rosellas, scores of Budgerigars and Zebra

Finches and also a number of Californian Quails. I added another aviary

to this on the same lines but with a small lean-to as a porch, and should like

to make some more, as I find medium-sized ones to be very handy, and much

to be preferred to large ones.


Given a wall, say 9 feet high, what we want to know is the cheapest

and best way to build the best sort of aviaries. I don’t like gables, as the

gutters are so much trouble; but if we make a lean-to, how are we to cover

part of the flight ? My wall is 9 feet high, and I should like to let the roof

fall over it, and if I put up, say, 6 aviaries, I should have a back passage up

the houses like Boulton and Paul's “dog and poultry ranges,” so as to get

at all of them through one door. I recommend a number of aviaries rather

than one large one, because many birds cannot possibly be kept together

on account of fighting, and if dividing them up costs rather more it will

pay in the long run, as I know from experience. Canaries live very well in

these aviaries, but for breeding my experience is that they do far better in

cages. My great trouble is mice, and I find that they can run, aye, gallop,

through Ir-inch mesh netting. Cannot we get one of the big firms to bring

out a f-inch mesh at a reasonable price ? This would stop mice, and it need

not be made of nearly such strong wire as J-in : the difference of price at

present between the two meshes is out of all proportion.


If any members have kept Parrots or Cockatoos in outdoor aviaries it

would be interesting to have their experiences, and if I put up more

aviaries I propose constructing one or two specially adapted for Parrots. I

already have Rosy Cockatoos in one of mine, but they' eat the woodwork,

and I think this might be protected by iron. Why not have the w r alls covered

with corrugated iron or plain sheets of galvanized iron if they can begot?

Even Macaws might then be kept in such aviaries.


In conclusion, can any member suggest a w T ay or means of importing

from, say Australia, the rarer birds, such as Red Rumps, Turquoisines and

other Parrakeets direct ? There is no getting such from the dealers except

at absurd prices. Can’t Mr. Camps help us ?



THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE CAGE BIRD CLUB.


Lecture by Dr. J. Denham Bradburn, delivered before the Members of the

Cage Bird Club , at the I/ms of Court Hotel, High Holborn, W.C., on Thursday,

October 18th, i8gj.


MULES.


Dr. Rradburn’s lecture, as he himself says, is not a digest of the entire

subject; indeed, it only samples Mule-breeding; the Goldfinch-Canary

hybrid serving as a model. From so experienced a breeder, no lecture,

however short and sketchy', can fail to be useful; and in the present one

several good points are made which it is to be hoped that all who either

heard the ledlure delivered, or have read it in print, will profit by. He

say's, on p. 148, speaking of the production of hybrids from British Finches :

“ If you wish success y r ou should run one cock Finch with three or four

hens (not necessarily'-of the same species) in a large out-door aviary, and you

may sometimes be successful.” No breeder will for a moment question the

wisdom of such a plan : if generally' followed, I am not at all sure that

many crosses, which Mule-breeders are always scoffing at as impossible,

•would not become realized facts. This brings me to another part of Dr.

Bradburn’s lecture, in which he say's : — “You will not get Mules from the

alliance of distinct genera like the Bramblefincli and Canary'.”


Mule-breeders are, as a class,, obstinate in their opinions; they usually'

commence operations with certain ideas W'ell engrafted upon their minds,

the chief of which is—It is useless to attempt to cross any genus of Finches

with the genus Fringilla or with any genus-of Buntings; but, on the other



