21



two couples wlio might be quarrelsome—the Cardinals—are not

in a position to make themselves disagreeable.


Outside my bird-room, at the back of the cottage, I have

a small garden aviary containing Budgerigars ; it is a compadt

little wooden arrangement, built against a wall, with wire on one

side only, and a snug enclosed bedroom. The Budgerigars

seem happy ; and we canhear them chattering a hundred yards

away.


My one sorrow is the want of accommodation for my

Pollies. Six poor exiles have to pass the dull days of winter in

the kitchen, for want of a nice warm room of their own. In the

summer they live in the drawing-room and make excursions into

the garden ; in the bird-room they would be impossible. I do

think, however, that parrots like the company of the world

below stairs ; or, perhaps, mine are all of low extraction ! At any

rate, they chatter far more when in the company of the servants

than when they are residing in polite society.


I light my bird-room lamp, which hangs on the wall over

the mantel-piece, every evening from seven to nine or ten o’clock,

and I find nearly all the birds seem glad to feed up to this late

hour.


I know that my bird-room arrangements compare very

unfavourabty with those of some other members who have been

good enough to describe their premises, and I cannot help feel¬

ing a wee bit envious of their “ regardless of cost” palaces, no

doubt just as lovely as the Zoo aviaries, with their fascinating

streams and plots of grass and bushes. Still, I hope very much,

even in a small room, to be successful with a few insectivorous

birds. I have done pretty well in former days with the com¬

moner small foreign finches, but the larger insectivorous birds

seem to me far more interesting and desirable both as pets and

breeding stock.



A VISIT TO THE BIRD SHOW AT THE

ROYAL AQUARIUM.


October, 1895.


By Dr. Geo. C. Wieeiamson.


I merely strolled in to look at the foreign birds, and a few

brief notes that I made may interest aviculturists.


The exhibition room by daylight is not at all suitable

place for studying birds. What it may be by night when well



