on the Kingfisher and Snipe in Captivity. 143


Cardinals simply will not tolerate any disturbance in their division,

and in the event of any unseemly brawls or quarrels, constitute

themselves into a kind of police force, part the combatants and

punish with promptness and severity the bird they deem the

offender. They are in fact without rival as keepers of the peace.

At the same time, I have kept and bred them in an aviary contain¬

ing the smallest Finches without having the least cause to regret

my temerity. It must be understood that what I have written

above refers only to staid old birds in their second or third season,

and not to flighty young birds in their first season, who, it must be

confessed, are often prone to do mischief out of pure exuberance

of spirits and the joy of living. These youngsters are for this

reason not altogether dependable or safe companions for small or

defenceless species. I fear I have allowed myself to be carried

very far away from the real subject of these notes. I should like,

however, as I have touched on this subject, to give my experience,

such as it is, of the behaviour of different species in a mixed series,

and to indicate those which I have found dangerous or otherwise.

This I will do hereafter, if our Editor thinks it will be of sufficient

general interest.


In the meantime to return to the subject of the Kingfisher;

from my first experience, I do not think it would be a difficult

matter to keep them in captivity under suitable conditions. Of

course, the method “ par excellence ” of keeping them, would be

in an aviary with a small stream running through it. This stream

could be blocked at its entrance to and exit from the aviary with

fine gauze, through which the water could pass without letting

out the minnows, etc., with which it would be an easy matter to

stock it. If necessary, the stream could be dammed to form small

pools and a fair-sized bank of sand or loose earth built up on one

or both sides of it, in which it is more than likely the birds would

go to nest. Failing these more or less ideal conditions, the most

suitable plan I should think, would be to construct a fair-sized

cement pool in the aviary with a deep and a shallow end. Before

turning the birds into either description of aviary, it would be

most necessary that they should have been made fairly tame, as

otherwise the venture would be foredoomed to almost certain



