on the Size of Aviaries and Cages. ioi


of every known sort, plenty of seedhoppers, etc. When it was

finished and before the birds were put in, it all looked exceedingly

pretty. The first thing that happened was that the birds ate the

soft plants, and the harder plants soon became covered with dust

and droppings and died. Then came a few young mice who

gained access, though the mesh of the wirework was only half-

an-incli. In spite of the daily warfare against the mice these

increased and multiplied, until they numbered hundreds if not

thousands. They fairly made that first aviary uninhabitable.

As to breeding, what with the number of birds in that aviary and

with the mice no nest came off successfully.


After about three years struggle I had to abandon that

aviary, and I next built a larger one by the light of the previously

gained costly experience.


This time I built of cement, discarding rockwork and

such like refuges of vermin, and divided my aviary into more

than a dozen sub-divisions, besides a considerable number of

separate cages. Instead of planted trees, I put in shrubs in

large pots which enabled me to change them as required. My

endeavours were crowned by fair success, which would however

have been greater had I contented myself with keeping only

half as many birds in each division.


The mortality is and must be considerably greater, and the

chance of breeding is very much smaller in large aviaries than

it is when birds are kept in suitable cages inhabited by one

species only. The characteristic temperament of the different

species varies greatly, and a close observer will find that there is

more individuality in birds of the same kind than is generally

believed.


The cause of the mortality in great aviaries is three-fold,

viz ., over feeding, starvation and injury.


It is not difficult to induce a dog and a cat to eat

occasionally out of the same dish. But if that mode of feeding

were made a daily practise the dog would greedily gobble all the

food, while the cat was thinking about beginning to feed, and in

the end would find an empty dish and starve. Precisely the same

happens in an aviary. Greedy individuals take possession of

the food-dishes and those of a more gentle character starve in



