Correspondence , Notes, etc. 189



going through the quaintest of dances and acrobatic performances and

bathing, por choice, in the pipe, on the outside aviary, which carries away

the rain water from the roof.


My caged Lory I often feel verj' sorry for. He can hear the chatter

of the happy pair in the next aviary ; he whistles and calls to them, and

they whistle and call back. If he were to be introduced, he would be

instantly killed, for the cock would have no mercy, and he narrowly

escaped death when the experiment was tried. He has nothing else to

do but eat and sleep. He knows his cage by heart, and his only amuse¬

ment is the mimicking of the various bird notes he hears about him.

He talks Malay fluently and a little English, and is very tame; but I

always look upon him as a highly educated Lory, and totally unlike his

beautiful wild relations in the next aviary. My experience has been, too,

that very tame birds are useless for breeding. With the tameness, comes

jealousy, and when a partner is introduced, she or he is usually shamefully

ill-treated or even murdered. No rival is brooked in the affections of

their master or mistress.


My ideal aviary I at length possess, a long house facing South, a

passage at the back, wire doors into each enclosure : small flights to each

divisipn, with half inch mesh wire netting, the ground wired with the

same, then two feet of earth planted with small shrubs or tree trunks.

The window placed near the roof, with an additional frame of wire net¬

ting, to use when the weather is too cold to allow the outside flight to

be used. I11 this aviary my birds live and do well; they go out nearly

every day, summer and winter, and their habits can be conveniently

studied. I can watch the birds from inside the aviary through the wire

door, and though not tame, they do not notice the footsteps up and down

the passage. I sincerely hope to learn much that is instructive this

nesting season. M. A. Johnstone.



Sir, — I have read with interest the correspondence on Aviaries versus

Cages in the last two numbers of our Magazine.


Personally I have had no experience with aviaries, but it may perhaps

interest some of your readers to hear a little about some forty foreign

finches I have kept for years in a wire cage—34.n1. by 15m. and iSin. in

height. A few of the birds I have had for over five years, and the most

prejudiced observer could not fail to admit that they are all in a very

healthy condition.


There are Cordon Bleus, Firefiuches, Silverbills, Orange - cheeks,

Pheasant Finches, St. Helena Waxbills, Bengalese, Bronze-wings, Spice-

birds, Grey and Green Singing-finches, one Nonpareil and one Combassou.

I have never lost a bird through egg-binding, and plenty of little eggs are

laid in the wooden box attached to the cage in which the birds build nests,

and into which, at night, eight or nine birds get to sleep. The tempera-



