184



Correspondence , Notes, etc.



My next critic is Mr. Reginald Phillipps, to whose opinions as a

distinguished aviculturist of considerable experience great attention is due.


Mr. Phillipps frankly says he detests cages and favours aviaries. The

question is what sort of cages does he condemn, what sized aviaries does he

favour, which cardinal points he does not mention.


If he can afford to build a number of aviaries or has his love of birds

sufficiently under control to resist the temptation of putting more than a

very few species of harmless birds in each aviary, I may be with him. It

stands to reason that such a plan could not be carried out in a Zoological

Garden as regards a new house for small Foreign birds. Crowded aviaries

spell disappointment and death. As regards cages, I hope and think Mr.

Phillipps would be more in agreement with me if he knew the size of the

cages I recommend for separate species in pairs.


I had in my time a fairly large aviary, it was 100 feet long and covered

I should say about half as much space as the New York Bird House covers.

It was divided into between 50 and 60 divisions of various sizes, most of

them covered and warmed, a dozen open-air flights. But I did not attempt

one tenth of the programme which the New York authorities publish. I

had a most devoted attendant on my birds, a man who had been brought up

as a gamekeeper; he came into my service as a gardener and caught my

enthusiasm for birds. I should congratulate any Zoological Garden if it

had his equal for intelligence and devotion to the birds in his charge in

its service. That was more than twenty years ago. I was present at his

funeral two years ago.


Mr. Phillipps doubts my statement that some birds may overeat

whilst others starve, though kept together. I was thinking of insec¬

tivorous birds, as I thought would be clear from the context of what I

wrote.


Insectivorous birds require mealworms, and such cannot of course be

supplied ad libitum. When they are given in an aviary certain birds will

get more than is good for them, others get none at all or less than their

share. I have recently watched the gradual decline and death of two

valuable birds in different compartments of a very large aviary. Their

premature end was, in my opinion, due to the simple fact that at a critical

state of their existence other birds more agile and voracious, though

smaller than they, got the best of the food supply.


Such things do not occur merely with insectivorous birds. I had a

curious experience with seed eating birds lately. I placed a Pintail Non¬

pareil with a few pairs of small finches. For the Pintail Nonpareil I gave

the birds some rice in the husk, which I procured with much difficulty.

To my great surprise the other birds all took a fancy to the rice and ate it,

only to prevent the new comer from having anj'. I had to remove the

Pintail Nonpareil from the cage to feed him suitably, and from that day the

other birds would not look at any more rice.



