on the Ruby-throated Bulbul.



219



had to be watched for and provided against. In short, she was

unsuited for the life of a mixed aviary with access to miscellaneous

foods. Those who have several small aviaries, instead of only

one or two larger ones, have greatly the advantage with such a

subject as this to deal with. To what extent the confinement

and travelling about for some seven months prior to reaching

England may have been responsible for this delicacy and weak¬

ness of mind and body I am not prepared to say ; I was told that

there had been two of them originally, but only one lived to

reach this country. A single male would have been less timid,

and a pair would have done better still. However, this solitary

spinster has so far progressed that she is now, apparently, in good

health and faultless plumage, and seldom gives me a moment’s

anxiety as to her welfare, and has become so brave that she will

rifle the Cuba Finches’ nests if opportunity offers, an exhibition

of courage that I could dispense with.


I11 cold weather, on the birdroom window being opened a

trifle, this bird’s crisp Twit , too-wit simultaneously resounds

through the room and proclaims the event to all the inmates,

and she is one of the first to dart out for a fly and hail the morn

with her bright and cheery tiddle-de-wink and other notes. But

she will soon feel the chill, and, having no enemy to fear at

present, will quickly return to the birdroom for shelter ; for when

birds expose themselves to cold, as in cases occasionally related,

it is not because they like it, or that the exposure does not injure

them, but, as a rule at any rate, because there is some hindrance

to their seeking shelter, some fear in the way, in most cases just

another bird and nothing more. It is not the human subject

that frightens the bird in the aviary, that sometimes fills it with

terror, but some feathered companion, usually one of its own or

of a kindred species. This point is too often overlooked or made

light of by aviculturists—and then follows the post mortem,

and they are surprised !


(To be continued.)



