Thirty-two Years of Aviculture.



195



in existence, but I was not aware of the fact ; so that when Cassell’s

Cage-Birds appeared I was only too glad to secure it. The perusal

of our late friend Wiener’s chapters on foreign birds introduced me

to the excellent work done by the well-known Dr. Buss and first

stimulated me to try and produce something in the same line myself,

as a help to the ever increasing number of aviculturists in the

British islands ; but of course I could not attempt anything of the

kind until I had learned by hitter experience how to house and feed

birds in captivity.


I am afraid my eagerness to acquire a general knowledge of

cage-birds led me into keeping too many at a time ; consequently

there were at first more quarrels and fewer successes in breeding

than there might otherwise have been ; but at least it taught me

what species might be safely kept together. On two occasions my

birds numbered 250, and (excepting during my holidays) I only had

my evenings from 5 p.m. in which to attend to them ; my aviaries

also were not constructed as they would have been had I possessed

greater experience of the requirements of birds at the time when

they were made.


Altogether I suppose I have kept 230 species of birds, British

and Foreign, and many of these owing to their aggressive or pre¬

dacious natures had to be kept in separate cages, but they were

almost invariably accommodated with enclosures sufficiently large

to enable them to use their wings and bathe at will. A small cage

is an abomination and surely not conducive either to the health or

happiness of its inmate.


Of Thrush-like birds the following have lived for longer or

shorter periods in my possession :—The Missel-Thrush, many Song-

Thrushes both hand-reared and trapped in the garden, a pair of

Bed-wings, a Fieldfare, numerous Blackbirds both hand-reared and

trapped, and a Grey-winged Ousel. Hand-reared birds are some¬

times better for exhibition but not as songsters ; because they

cannot learn their wild song without instruction. I gi’eatly pre¬

ferred birds of the year captured during the winter: in severe

weather these soon become tame and confiding, and, after their first

moult in confinement, they are quite as tame as hand-reared



