i8o



Correspondence, Notes, etc .



I liave also six little Hanging Parrakeets ( Vernalis) and a Scaly-

breasted Lorrikeet, some Blue-bonnet Parrakeets, and a Many-colour.


My Red Eclectus has just laid an egg. I am sorry I have not a cock

to mate her with.


My Golden-crowned Conures also laid fertile eggs, but unfortunately

the hen died.


A Russian gentleman tells me that the Many-coloured Tauager has

bred successfully in his bird-room at Odessa. They built in a box, making

their nest with strips of paper, and reared several young ones which were

flying about when he left. They were fed on mashed potatoes, milk sop,

and egg, also some insects.


Can anyone through the Avicuttural Magazine tell me how the

Nicobar Pigeon ought to be kept? Whether it requires an aviary to itself,

or whether it is good natured with other inmates ?


I have a beautiful white Thrush—an albino. I had never seen one

before, though I have seen white Blackbirds, Sparrows, and Chaffinches.


My Blue Mountain Lory and my Eos riciniata are trying hard to

speak, and they manage to articulate one or two words, and are quite

comical in their efforts. .


My Plumed Doves have not yet bred, but the Ocyphaps lophotes have

done very well; also the Diamond, Afra, and Talpacoti Doves, and the

Passerine. GiuliE Tommasi Bai.dei.IvI.



AVIARIES versus CAGES.


Sir, —It is gratifying that my letter on the size of aviaries and cages

in the January number of the Avicuttural Magazine has elicited such

numerous and very interesting replies, which prove that the subject was

well worth discussion.


That those who share my views on the subject think it unnecessary to

reiterate or to confirm what I wrote is natural, which may lead to the

perhaps wrong impression that my views are shared by few and opposed by

many in whose name eminent specialists have voiced their opinion.


With your leave I will reply, as briefly as I can, to the chief points

urged by my critics.


Mr. Pocock argues right through his letter on the assumption that I

advocate small cages. I have neither expressed nor implied any such

recommendation. I distinctly advocated roomy and light cages or

divisions of carefully considered construction as large as the available

space permitted. “ Small cages” are not at all under discussion.


Some specimen cages of the size I suggested are actually now in use

u the Insect House of the Zoo, and as they are of cubic dimension equal to

what are called in every day life drawing room aviaries, they could not be

called “ small cages,” which must lead ordinary readers to think I had

meant collections of small birds to be housed in prisons like the ordinary



