7



A ver}' mixed collection and one that takes no little catering


for.


And herein lies the first difficulty. “ One man’s meat is

another man’s poison ” is a true proverb for birds as for men, and

we frequently lose the greedy birds, such as the Blue Robins

or Virginian Cardinals, from what I suppose is apoplexy, or

syncope due to fatty degeneration. They generally drop off the

bough when in the pink of condition and are found to be as

fat as butter. Of course I shall be told not to give so much soft

food, but the difficulty is how to avoid it.


Again, it will often happen that a particular bird will

monopolize all the food vessels and prevent the other birds from

approaching them. To meet this difficulty I adopted the plan

of having a number of trays and boxes about the place, but

this is unsightly and gives rise to yet another difficulty, viz. the

mice trouble.


I know no bird so prone to take on this dog-in-the-manger

spirit as the Pin-tailed Wliydah, and I have discontinued trying

to keep him in consequence. The last I had, though not so big

as a mouse, could keep the whole floor of the large centre com¬

partment of the Aviary clear even of birds as large as a Rosella

or Moustache Parrakeet, amongst which I placed him after he had

proved himself more than a match for birds of his own size and

weight.


A hen American Mocking bird proved equally implacable

and had to be dismissed.


But the greatest difficulty arising out of the character of

birds is their resentment at the intrusion of strangers ; and this

seems to be quite instinctive, and not to be dependent in any way

on the question of food supply or anything of that sort. I have

just tried to introduce a pair of Redfaced Lovebirds. I was

fortunate in being able to select, out of a large number, a pair that

had more wing than these birds usually have when first im¬

ported—why are these alone of the various lovebirds cropped

in this way?—but they were still unable to fly without difficulty,

and in two days one died, as my assistant told me, simply because

the other birds persistently drove it from the food, no matter how

freely he scattered it about the place.


So of a pair of Avocets, the male was killed in 24 hours by

the Curlews, and a second one, procured to fill the gap, shared

the same fate in less time, and this occurred only last week when

there could be no jealousy arising out of pairing.


Of a pair of Nightingales introduced last Autumn among



