on the Birds in my Aviary.



117



fruit in season. They constantly call to each other, but I have

not seen the cock display for some weeks, probably the cooler

temperature and want of sun would account for this.


In the next division is a pair of White-crested Touracous

(Turacus corythaix) handsome birds, but not nearly so interesting

as Fraser’s Touracou. They will eat nothing but banana, and

hawthorn berries, when in season, which I give in large boughs,,

these they completely strip in a very short time and I was very

glad to discover how fond they were of this berry; they make

an excellent change for them and are a most inexpensive diet.

These birds are larger than Fraser’s Touracou, rather brighter

in colouring and quite as handsome and hardy.


Next door lives a beautiful pair of Lion Marmosets. I feel

I ought to have left these out as they are not birds, but I cannot

pass them over without a few words for they are indeed things

of beauty. The silky, golden red hair and little soft brown,

intelligent faces, very gentle, daintily quick in movement, in

fact most interesting personalities. They live in a box, into

which they dart with a rush if a stranger approaches. They go

out every possible day and always have their windows open for

a short time in the worst weather. As far as I can tell at present,,

they are not afflicted with that delicacy of which dealers have

warned me. One dealer told me he had discovered the way to

keep them alive. I naturally listened with deep interest. “They

must be kept near a hot stove with a large pan of water on the

top, so simulating their native climate”! I have had these

Marmosets since June, in the best of health.


Fraser’s Touracou comes next. I feel I have already written

in a previous article an account of these charming birds, so I

must not take up valuable space with reiteration. I lost the

cock bird over a year ago, but the widow and her son are still in

the best of health. She is as charming as ever, and will always

spring lightly down to be stroked and petted, throwing back her

dainty head with a hoarse “caw! caw!”


She is an indefatigable nester, and last year laid and sat

on several clutches of two eggs. These birds will eat quite a

variety of food, bread and milk, soaked biscuit squeezed dry,

sultanas, banana and other fruits. They are very fond of bathing.



