244 Correspo?idence, Notes, etc.



CRIMSON-WINGED PARRAKEETS.


Sir, —My pair of Bloodwings are going on like they did last year: hen

took to a nest-box until just before she laid, then forsook it and scratched

in the sand on the aviary floor. She has laid her second egg to-day (March

31st), but as the sand is fine there is no nest or cavity to keep the eggs to¬

gether. East year I tried to make her a nest on the floor, and placed a

piece of board over it to make it private, but she forsook, although she is a

most tame bird and will feed from my hands or lips and will come to a

stranger for a nut; but she resents interference with her nesting. I have

removed every other bird out of the aviary and I think I shall just let her

do as she chooses, but I cannot see how she can incubate the clutch of eggs

on a loose sand floor. One thing in her favour is that she has laid in the

covered-in part of the aviary. F. H. Rudkin.



AVIARIES AND CAGE-BIRDS.


Sir, —Many of the readers of the Avicultural Magazine will no doubt

have shared my pleasure in reading the very interesting contribution to the

discusssion of Aviaries ami Cages by Mr. C. William Beebe, published in

the April number of the Magazine.


Mr. Beebe reveals himself as a true lover of birds, and as such I

should like to shake hands with him across the Atlantic, although we may

differ 011 some details about the best management of birds in confinement.


Nothing in this world is perfect, and when I read in a publication

accessible to all the world that it was asserted the new Bird-house at the

New York Zoological Gardens “ excels most other buildings of its kind in

the world,” and had reason to believe that its model might be copied tel

quel in Europe, I ventured to suggest, in my article in the January number

of the Aviadtural Magazine, that it would be well “ before copying it, to

wait a couple of years and to ascertain whether it has fulfilled the hopes of

its designers.” My criticism of details was] meant in all kindness, and I

entirely dissociate myself from other writers who called the New York

house “ a grotesque experiment” etc. I wished to point out that many of

the weak points in a new structure only become apparent after a while.


Mr. Beebe frankly admits that he had a great struggle with the

plague of mice, as I had foreseen he would have. He thinks that 11 Homo

sapiens ” has beaten “ Mus americanus” and driven the latter out of the

bird-house. His account of the means he employed is interesting, but I

fear the slim mouse will beat the brain of man in his case, glad as I am to

recognise Mr. Beebe’s resourcefulness in fighting a difficulty.


Complete extermination is impossible, and as each pair of mice will

be responsible for a numerous swarm in a very short time the mouse war,

which Mr. Beebe thinks ended, will recommence periodical!} 7 . The worst is

that we only know of the presence of mice when the mischief of which they

are capable is done. Stopping holes is of only temporary utility, for the



