Notes on my Birds.



39



NOTES ON MY BIRDS.


By Mrs. Howard Williams.


About thirteen years ago we gave lip keeping Canaries in

favour of foreign birds. We began, as so many people do, with

a fine large Crystal Palace aviary, into which we put any little

foreigners which struck our fancy. The tiny finches attracted

us greatly, but all sorts shared the cage, until by degrees

we learned which varieties did best with us, and which were

desirable companions. Eventually we gave the Palace aviary

and its varied contents to a friend, and bought in its place a

large flight cage, in which we kept some Pekin Robins. We

found these otherwise charming birds a little trying in a sitting-

room, they were so persistently cheerful and noisy, and the

continual thump, thump, thump, as they joyfulty jumped down

their three perches with shouts of glee proved more than we

could endure.


We then had a small aviary built, standing on short legs,

made entirely of wood including a high gable roof, and wired

only in front. This was put in a west verandah, where the

Pekin Robins and a few other hardy birds spent a winter, and

were in high spirits and condition. I should add that on cold

nights a green baize curtain was drawn over the front.


The now empty flight cage was again brought into use,

when a pair of Bicheno Finches arrived. They were said to

have been in this country two years, and I was anxious to have

them as several newly-imported specimens had died, to my great

disappointment. This pair not only lived, but proceeded to

build a nest in their rush sleeping basket, and succeeded in

rearing a healthy family in a sitting-room where children were

constantly running about, and where the aspect left much to be

desired from a bird’s point of view.


About this time we moved the aviary into the conserva¬

tory and added some Gouldian Finches to our collection, and

some other Australian birds, and finding they did very well

there, a second aviary was made exactly like the first, but rather

larger. I suspect that the reason our birds have done well on

the whole in a conservatory may be that the aviaries are made



