356



Correspondence.



trouble he takes to make an aviary natural. I doubt if he would ever raise a

softbill in an aviary unless it was a naturally planted one.


Birds like grassfinches or parrakeets will even breed iu a good-sized cage,

but not the rarer waxbills, softbills, weavers, or larger parrakeets. Apart from

considerations of breeding, a natural aviary is so extraordinarily fascinating and

the birds enjoy their captivity so much more. Then growing plants purify the

ground, and shutting the birds up for the winter gives the flight a good rest, a

very important consideration.


With regard to showing. I may say that I went into my aviaries less

than a week before I showed my birds and picked out a few convenient ones. I

showed twice with 15 and 13 cages and obtained 18 and 16 awards respectively.

So that the contention that birds do better in cages than in an aviary is certainly

no contention of mine. My contention was that they are less likely to die in

cages. I could myself name exceptions, of which most softbills are an example,

But ask any dealer of repute, as I have actually done, and he will tell you that he

would not dare trust his stock in an aviary. Dr. Hopkinson has just returned

with a large number of quail finches (0. atricollis ) and bar-breasted firefinches

( L. rufopicta). In grossly overcrowded cages, and in one case it was impossible

to clean it out, he did not lose a single bird. And yet of the former quail

finches he brought over and deposited in various aviaries, but a remnant remain.

He and others have proved time after time that birds like firefinches, cordon

bleus, and pintail parrot-finches will live more or less indefinitely in cages, but

die off as soon as ever they are put out. Zebra finches die off in aviaries too.

If it were not so they would soon be as common as larks and linnets. They are

extraordinarily prolific and are imported by the thousand. What happens to

them all ?


I only speak from experience, and, at the risk of being thought a bore, I

will repeat my experiments and observations are based on a collection of at least

400 — 500 birds of all sorts and description, kept in aviaries with flights and

without flights, heated and unheated, well lighted and ill lighted. I possess

hardbills and softbills, hardy birds and delicate birds, and have in two years

bred 32 different species of foreign birds and four species for the first time in

captivity. This year I have already bred 78 young birds and 18 different species.

I do not say this in any boastful spirit but merely to show my credentials. If

Mr. Rattigan, or any other member, would care to come and see my aviaries, I

should be most happy to show them to him and put him up for the night. Then

he can judge for himself as to how the birds are looked after.


One last word. All my birds are fed indoors, except in mid-summer, when

a proportion of the food is put outside for various reasons, chiefly perhaps to

enable the young to find the food more easily.


In conclusion, I should like to tender Mr. Rattigan my sincerest sympathy

in his unfortunate loss. To lose practically the cream of one’s collection at one

fell swoop would be enough to dishearten Hercules.



L. Lovell-Keays.



