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Mr. Gerald Battigan,



commenced. Last year, both Cuban and parrot finches nested in

this shelter.


The only birds, of all those mentioned below, that did not to

my knowledge use the shelter on any occasion were the red-billed

weavers and the cordon bleus. Providing the shelter is made

comfortable for the birds and food is placed in it to encourage them

to use it, I do not believe there would ever be the slightest difficulty

in inducing most species to use it, and those that did not could be

easily caught up and placed either in cages or a closed-in shelter till

the winter was past.


At Brockenhurst, where I was during 191.4, the aviary con¬

tained no large shrubs of any kind, so that the birds were forced to

either roost in the shelter or in the pile of brushwood, both of

which were under cover. This year, however, chiefly for ornamental

reasons, I put in some thick fir and other hardy shrubs. As an ex¬

periment I shall leave these in this winter, though I very much fear

their presence will prove detrimental to the birds’ welfare, owing to

the fact that, though they afford practically no protection from a

continuous damp spell, the birds, or many of them, seem to prefer

roosting in them to roosting in the other and far safer places I have

provided. Small shrubs, etc., in an aviary undoubtedly improve its

appearance, and are moreover no doubt very much appreciated by

the birds themselves ; they may also increase the prospects of a

successful nesting season, though, unless the aviary is converted into

a small plantation, this I very much doubt; but although up till

now I have had no opportunity of actually proving my theory,

I most certainly, rightly or wrongly, attribute the heavy casualty

lists that appear to occur with some regularity in many otherwise

far more perfect and elaborate aviaries than mine has any claim to

be, to the presence of these shrubs, which I believe to be veritable

death traps during cold and inclement weather, especially to the

smaller finches and waxbills.


I will conclude with a list of the birds I placed in the aviary

I have described at Brockenhurst in April, 1914.


Breeding results, thanks to the activities of field mice, were

poor, and all the young actually bred were either sold or exchanged

for other birds, so are not entered on the list, nor are the few birds



