134 Correspondence, Notes, etc.



DESCRIPTION OF A HYBRID


Between the Cape Canary (Serinus canicollis) and the Mountain

Canary or Aeario Finch (Alario alario).


By Ai/win Haagner, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., Hon. Sec., S.A.O.U.


The bird herein described was found by me in a collection of Eastern

Province birds made by my friend and fellow ornithologist, Robert H. Ivy

of Graliamstown, a description of which I thought might be of some

interest to the readers of the Avicultural Magazine :


Top of head dusky brown, faintly cross-barred with paler ; across the

nape an indistinct ashy collar ; eyebrows, lores, and ear coverts shaded with

yellowish brown; upper surface chocolate brown streaked with dark

brown ; coverts, secondaries, and primaries black, broadly margined with

paler and tipped with still paler brown ; rectrices black margined with pale

brown, the outer feathers very narrowly; cheeks, throat and sides of chest

dark ashy, with the breast dusky brown merging into pale russet on the

flanks of abdomen, the former with a few narrow black streaks ; under tail

coverts pale russet cream. Bill and feet horn colour. S . Length 4f inches.

Bred by Mr. Leslie, Port Elizabeth.



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.



AVIARIES versus CAGES.


Sir, —In reply to Mr. Wiener’s advocacy of small cages as opposed to

large aviaries for birds, I must restrict myself as far as possible to his

animadversions upon the flight cages in the Zoological Gardens, and par¬

ticularly upon the one set apart for Parrots. By' selecting a concrete case

of this kind for consideration, and by stating clearly and concisely the

reasons for his condemnation, Mr. Wiener has made discussion of the

various points comparatively easy because he deals to a great extent with

facts and not with mere generalities and opinions.


Underlying however his disapproval of this and all large aviaries

there is the conviction that birds should be kept and exhibited in small

rather than in spacious cages in the Gardens. Before any discussion of this

question can be entered upon with profit, it is necessary to settle first of all

what aspects of ornithology a Zoological Gardens should illustrate. Neg¬

lecting, as outside the present topic, the possibility of exhibiting beasts

and birds faunistically and geographically, a possibility which may perhaps

take tangible shape in the remote future, let us inquire yvliich of the two

methods now in vogue in the Gardens should be given the preference, if

preference be given to either. These methods are (i) the exhibition of

series of birds in small cages, so that their specific, generic and other

systematic characters may' be easily seen and compared; and ( 2 ) the ex-



