306 On Mr. Heumann's Aviaries at Beecroft, N.S.W.


called, and perching on their friend’s head, or flying past and swoop¬

ing down to take the proffered grub or crumb.


One often hears it said that our Australian birds cannot be

kept satisfactorily in captivity. The imposing list of “ soft-billed ”

birds alone, given above, is a sufficient answer; but in the aviaries

under discussion, the term captivity must be understood in quite a

relative sense: so great is the freedom of the birds, that even the

most sensitive objector to the caging of wild birds could find little to

hurt his feelings here.


Space forbids that I should dwell more upon this subject, but

I would like to refer to two observations made by Mr. Heumann—

one relating to the olive-backed oriole, and the other to the satin

bower-bird. It was noted that when the oriole was suffering from

the fright of capture (whether by lime or net), the very pronounced

red colour of the eyes was immediately lost, leaving a pallid white,

which, of course, quite altered the appearance of the bird Eecently

he caught a pair which he had and sent them to the Sydney Zoo.

Upon capture the red colour disappeared, as when they were first

captured : but this was immediately restored when they were put

into the large enclosure at the Zoo. The satin bower birds are

said to have a decided penchant for the colour of blue, both in the

aviary and in a wild state, decorating their bowers or playgrounds

with any fragments of blue cloth, paper, or china, etc., or flowers, if

available. Mr. Heumann says he has invariably found the bowers

in a state of Nature, decorated specially with one small blue flower.

The irides of this bird are of a blue colour, and it is suggested that

perhaps this preference, if such really exists throughout the species,

is due to the fact that their mates’ eyes are blue.


In this connection it is w T orthv of note that a bower, described

by Leach in p. 185 of his “ Australian Bird Book,” was decorated

with blue flowers from the school garden, pieces of blue paper, blue

hair-ribbon, besides blue parrot’s feathers. Campbell, in his “ Nests

and Eggs of Australian Birds,” p. 193 (footnote), says: “ Mr. I. W.

De Lany informs me that he has only noticed blue feathers at

bowers. His wife, by way of experiment, put out several pieces of

coloured wools near the house, and only the blue ones were taken

to the bower.”



