a small Aviary in the Hills in India. 369


do harm to the birds which are protected by the ^--inch mesh

wire. The summer is beastly hot even for the birds, though of

course it is cool compared to the plains. The winter on the

other hand is beastly cold, lots of frost and snow and biting

wind. I have felt the cold much more up here than at home, but

that is probably owing to the startling and trying variations of

temperature.


Cheap feeding is another advantage for seedeaters ; millet

is only ^d. to at the most fd. a pound ; canary and hemp run to

about 3^d. a pound in bulk landed up here. After the rains there

is abundant wild millet (a small kind) and numerous other wild

seed grasses ; green stuff is a great difficulty in the hot weather.


Construction of aviaries ought to be cheap, but I have

found the handy man I used to get hold of at home

infinitely cheaper, and as for rapidity of work and “pukka”

work there is no comparison. Natives can build an ordinary

bungalow with quite decently fitting door, &c., but they cannot

see why the planks on the roof should fit close together, at any

rate one may watch them lay four or five planks correctly, go

away for an hour or so, and you may bet that the new planking

has to come off. This will happen many times. As for wire-

work—the language requisite is terrible, varied with patient

coaxing and sarcasm—it is very wearying ; fortunately I go in for

rough carpentry a bit myself. I must own that for some time

past we have been unfortunate in having great difficulty in

getting mistris at all as they are nearly all required for work on

the barracks.


Among minor drawbacks must be counted the very

limited market for young and surplus birds; this may sound

grasping, but any one who has tried it will know that it is a

drawback. I should be more than satisfied to get a little less

than half the buying price up in this part, which in turn are

(and rightly too in retail so to speak) quite half as much again

as Calcutta and Bombay prices.


Another drawback in a small way is solitude in avicul¬

ture. One is put down as more or less mad, and pigeons and

fowls are always being suggested as more fitting animals to

keep, as if anyone who has watched young own-bred Gouldiaus



