Correspondence. 355


CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.



THE BREEDING OF ZOSTEROPS VIREUS.


Dr. LOVELL-IvEAYS writes that he believes the species of Zosterops which

has successfully bred four times this season in his aviaries, is not Z. viridis but

Z. vireus.


The error was due to Dr. Lovell-Iveays being misinformed by “ a practised

aviculturist.”



DEGREASE OF HOUSE SPARROWS IN NORANCHES.


SIR,—A few weeks ago a friend wrote to me from Noranches, Normandy,

asking if I could suggest any reason for the decided decrease of house sparrows

in Noranches during this year. She also said that they had almost disappeared

from Paris, where they are usually very noticeable. I could offer no suggestions,

so thought I would write to ask if you, or any member of the Society, knowing

France, had noticed the same thing since the war began, and had any idea as to

the reason ; if so, I should be much interested to hear.


F. BARLOW-MASSICKS.



THE WINTER TREATMENT OF BIRDS.


SIR,—The Avicultural Society is to be congratulated on having so many

keen and observant aviculturists among its members. It is pleasing, too, to

note the temperate manner in which they approach so very controversial a

subject as the above. It is quite impossible for all of us to think alike, and

moreover entirely undesirable. It is only by opening the doors of discussion

that our hobby is ever likely to make progress. It is highly gratifying to be

able to say that aviculture has made vast strides during the last decade. Fancy

people breeding flocks of cordon bleus or firefinches a dozen or fifteen years ago,

and yet such a thing as that is to-day a matter of actual occurrence. But

“ revenons d nos moutons.” Mr. Rattigan has discovered one great truth,

pointed out by Mr. Shore Bailey and confirmed by myself, that is that birds

will use a shelter if they have no cover outside. He is also right in'his surmising

that it is the cold wet nights that play such havoc with birds that roost out.

The winter nights being so much longer than the summer nights of course

greatly aggravates the mischief, and hence one’s losses are very much greater.

In all this he and I are in absolute agreement, and I thank him most cordially

for his support to what is, after all, a very common sense view of the matter.

But here we come to the parting of the ways, and I fear that Mr. Rattigan is

deducing arguments from too limited an experience as regards different classes of

birds, different types of aviaries and different kinds of locality. I think one

might almost take it as an axiom that the larger the aviaries and the more closely

they conform to nature the better the breeding results. Mr. Teschemaker, one

of our most brilliant breeders of difficult birds, could tell us of the infinite



