Notes on my Birds.



127



can be drawn at will right over the front of this aviary. This

simple plan keeps out much of the cold in winter, and also keeps

out a worse enemy still, the prying gaze of strange cats. Not

only at night are the curtains useful but also in the day time, if it

is wished to keep any birds especially quiet. So for two or three

days the Cranes were kept as undisturbed as possible, and then

as they seemed all right the curtains were drawn back and their

door opened. We dreaded when they did come out into the

garden how we should get them back into the aviary at night,

but our fears were quite needless. The Cranes proved very in¬

telligent, and soon got into a regular habit of marching back to

the aviary at what the}' considered their bedtime and going in of

their own accord. Their door stands open all day, and after they

have gone in it is locked till morning. All the same the Cranes

are very particular and on no account must be put off at their

appointed time or they may turn tiresome and refuse to go in.

Once we had some friends in for croquet, and the game being a

long one the players were still on the lawn at the time the Cranes

wanted to cross it to get to their house. They came so far and

then turned shy and went back, and that night and for several

nights following they were very unsettled about going in. Fur¬

ther, they are very suspicious. Another time they were going

into the aviary when they hesitated and did not seem to care

to go on, and on looking we found a broken twig had blown

across the doorway, and I suppose they thought it was a trap,

anyway the twig being removed their objection to going in was

removed also, and they went inside quite quietly.


In the shelter is a layer of peat moss litter and at one end,

on the top of this, a thick layer of straw. I believe the Cranes

crouch in this at night as I have seen them do 011 the hot

asphalt walks on a summer’s day. They look very curious when

squatting on their knees, for naturally they don’t kneel as we

should do with our feet backwards but the reverse way, with their

feet in front of them.


The Cranes live on wheat, dari, hemp, and rice, and seem

to thrive on this diet, also they have what insects we can get, and

are especially fond of live blackbeetles. We empty them out of

the traps into shallow pans of water, out of which the birds pick



