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The Value of Failures.



THE VALUE OF FAILURES.


By E. J. Brook, M.B.O.U., F.Z.S.


Probably in Aviculture as in most other matters, one

learns as much from mistakes and failures as from successes, and

it is the knowledge that we can learn many matters from out-

failures, that makes our disappointments easier to put up with.


Do not let the beginner in Aviculture loose heart because

some rare and beautiful bird that he thought was thoroughly

acclimatised and safe, suddenly takes ill and dies, or is seen

lively and healthy one moment and the next is found dead on

the ground, such things have happened to all of us, and it is

from such “ beautiful corpses ” that we must learn lessons for

future guidance.


My own method when I find a bird dead, and the reason

for death is not obvious, is either to send it away for examination

or to skin it and place the body in 7 per cent, formalin or

methylated spirits for preservation till some medical friend

comes along, and then we examine it together and talk 011 any

disease or injured part we may find and discuss possible means

to prevent another such case.


A case in point was that of a very fine Six-plumed Bird of

Paradise that fell dead from its perch, examination showed an

annurism on the heart had burst. Nothing could have saved the

bird, but I learned from the condition of the body that the

feeding was evidently right, and so I knew there was no necessity

to treat the others any differently than I had been doing.


Last autumn or early winter I lost certain birds from lung

troubles. These birds were with others in various compartments

of a large aviary, and the ones that died had all been for some

months during the summer in a small aviary with a floor of

cinders where they were doing very well when I went to Perth¬

shire in August. Early in October my aviary keeper noticed

that the birds in this small aviary were not looking well, so he

moved them, but they all gradually dropped off till only two

Gouldiau Finch cocks and one Toucan were left. The fault in

this case was undoubtedly housing the birds in an aviary with a

floor that was not impervious to moisture, all went well so long

as the weather was dry, but the exceptional rain of September



