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Correspondence.



apparatus. The entrance, with double wire doors, was at the back and the

heating boiler was surrounded by galvanized iron with a large air space between

it and the aviary. It has been working satisfactorily since January.


The whole building is tarred outside and creosoted inside, except the front

which was newly painted, and it was about fifty yards from the house in a line

with my bedroom. I woke about 4 a.m. with a light in my room and my first

thought was the house was on fire, then I looked and saw enormous flames

coming out of the aviary. Even from that distance I could see it was hopeless.

Nothing could be done to save the birds and the only thing is, I hope the fumes

of creosote overtook them and stupified them before being burnt.


We prevented the surrounding bushes from catching fire and luckily the

wind blew the flames away from the house over the lawn. There is not a plant

left standing.


Amongst some of the birds were a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, two Argentine

Thrushes (imported personally), one pair Orange-breasted Ground Thrushes, pair

Green Cardinals, Blue Budgerigars, Gouldians, pair Parrot Finches (breeders),

Stonechat, Diamond, Long-tailed, Grass and other Finches, in all about forty

birds and some very tame.


I cannot think how the aviary got on fire. It is very sad, to think I put

in the apparatus to make the birds happy and safe from fire and now this has

occurred. I have used a paraffin stove in the lower aviary, with great fear, some

years past during intense frosts. I once tried a carbon stove in the aviary that

was burnt, but that gave off fumes and killed eight birds and I luckily

discovered it in time to save the lot. M. C. HAWKE.


THE HABITS OF LIOTHRIX LUTE A.


SIR,—Dr. Butler’s able article on the sexes of Liothrix lutea which

appears in the current issue of the Avicultural Magazine will, doubtless, have

been read with interest by admirers of this engaging species—now so commonly

kept by bird-lovers; and his notes, aided by the beautifully-coloured plate, cannot

fail to prove of value to those aviculturists who have hitherto experienced

difficulty in distinguishing between the male and female bird.


That this difficulty is very real is testified to by the fact that very many

experts of considerable experience have found the sexing of L. lutea a veritable

stumbling-block ; small wonder, then, that amateur bird-keepers are so easily

deceived. If a word of advice be acceptable to such—one would counsel a rigid

avoidance of all consignments of so-called cheap birds when the purchase of a male

specimen is in contemplation; one’s experience in matters of this kind is

usually bought dearly, and it will be found to pay best in the long run to put

down a fair price and get the genuine article, which can generally be accomplished

by going in the first place to a reliable dealer, verb. sap.


One point in Dr. Butler’s notes would seem to be of special interest, viz. :

his reference to the Tit-like habits of L. lutea , and the expressed opinion that

this species does not hold its prey under its claws in order to pick it to pieces.



