My Birds at Brinsop Court.



309



It is to me always exceedingly difficult, as I do not specialize

in any particular genus, to keep down numbers. One makes up

one’s mind not to overcrowd, but one’s mind apparently does not

brook being ordered about; something tempting is offered ; one says

“ Just one more bird or pair of birds in that compartment ” and so

it goes on ! And goes on against one’s real inclinations, for I do not

care to see one’s aviaries looking like a bird shop.


It is not natural to mix too many species from various parts

of the world together, and the flights of my aviaries are not spacious.

I must weed out some : but what ? Take one partition for instance.

A pair of Chestnut-breasted Blue Bock Thrushes, the only pair

probably in Europe. A pair of Cossy.pha caffra —Cape Bobin Chats ;

again decidedly choice. A pair of Bed Cardinals from Yucatan, a

smaller race, the male with a longer and more sharply pointed crest

than the better-known North American type, and more vermilion ;

yet they are not C. phoeniceus. A pair of Blue Birds ( Sialis ). A

Cat-Bird—a solitary widow w T ho builds every year and lays gorgeous

blue egg's. A pair of Orange-headed Ground Thrushes ( Geocichla

citrina). A pair of Diamond Doves and a Hooded Pitta.


None of these would I care to part with, and yet if I gave up

the compartment to just three pairs of birds, say, the Blue-headed

Bock Thrushes, the Blue Birds and the Bed Cardinals, there would

be more likelihood of successful nesting, and the effect would be

better. Two many birds confuse the eye, besides the risk of their

quarrelling.


Two of the six compartments are occupied by Parrakeets and

Doves. Three species of the former. Queen Alexandras—five males

and two females, not altogether. Hooded Parrakeets, one pair by

themselves, and two males in another partition, and one pair of

Barrabands (Green Leeks).


In with them are Barred-Shouldered Doves, Diamond Doves

and a pair of Crested Doves, but the latter are going out, for there

are already seven or eight flying about, a pair of which have had a nest

in a hawthorn tree which overhangs the long paved terrace bordering

the moat. These Crested Doves are very tame, walking about close

to people, and paying little attention even to several Pekingese dogs

which have been taught to leave them unmolested. The flight of the



