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Miss E. E. Chawner,



also told me that blue and orange seemed favourite colours—the

blue berries and an orange orchid.


The birds were very particular as to tidiness and cleanliness

—in which not a few humans might with advantage learn a

lesson from them!—and if leaves, etc. were scattered on the mossy

“ meadow,” they were as soon as the opportunity arrived, promptly

removed. The ground on which the bower is built is cleared of all

refuse and smoothed down.


So the love of gardening is very, very ancient, and the Bower-

Birds must be highly developed along their own line of evolution.



IN PRAISE OF OWLS.


By Miss E. E. Chawner.


“ Of all the birds that ever I see,


The owl is the fairest far to me.” Old Song.


It is now fifteen years since I started Owl keeping, and I find

these birds so charming that I can only wonder so few aviculturists

appear to share my enthusiasm. Dealers constantly tell me that

there is no demand for Owls, and therefore it is no use to import

them.


When one considers that all Owls are beautiful, many quite

hardy when once acclimatised, long-lived and easily kept in health,

that they are highly intelligent, quickly become tame and often

warmly attached to their keepers, their many merits should establish

them firmly in the affections of all bird-lovers.


I now possess the following species :—True pairs of Eagle

Owls ( Bubo maximus ), Cyprean Scops Owls ( Scops cyprius ); S.

American Burrowing Owls ( Speotyto cunicularia ) ; West Australian

Marbled Owls ( Ninox occellata) ; and Sparrow Owls ( Glaucidium

passerinum) ; also single specimens of Sharpe’s Wood Owl ( Syrnium

machale ); English Tawny Owl ( Syrnium aluco ) ; Fernando Po

Eagle Owl ( Bubo porusis ), and Mexican Pigmy Owl ( Glaucidium

gnome), all in perfect health and nearly all in perfect plumage.


My Eagle Owls are aviary-bred and are the last brood reared

by Mr. Meade-Waldo’s celebrated pair of Eagle Owls, now deceased.

They are noble birds, perfectly hardy and in beautiful plumage.



