In the Aviary. 227 



wander a few yards from the hen, they would not heed her 

 call, and would inevitably perish. 



" When three or four weeks old, it is necessary, if reared 

 for the aviary, to pinion them, which is done by cutting off 

 rather more than the first joint of the wing, having previously, 

 by means of a needle and thread, inserted close to the small 

 wing-bone and brought round the large one just within the 

 skin, taken up the main blood vessels ; the piece of the wing 

 is then chopped off on a block. There is no loss of blood, and 

 I never could observe that the birds seemed to suffer in the 

 slightest degree afterwards, although the operation I daresay 

 was painful enough. My reason for taking off rather more 

 than the first joint of the wing was because I found that if 

 only the first joint was taken off, the birds were always able, 

 when grown up, to get out of the aviary, which was about 

 12ft. high, and I found it thus requisite to take off so much 

 as to render them incapable of any attempt at flying ; but I 

 left enough remaining to enable them to reach their roosting- 

 place at night. I furnished them with a kind of ladder by 

 nailing cross-pieces of wood on a long piece about Sin. wide, 

 which they very soon learned to walk up and down with 

 facility. One aviary in which I kept some had a back wall 

 to it covered with old ivy, and they preferred roosting in 

 this ; indeed, I always found that, although during a wet day 

 those which were at liberty took shelter under a roof, yet 

 at night they would not do so, but would instead roost in the 

 open air. The females will lay about twenty-five eggs each 

 in the aviary. I always provided them with baskets to lay 

 in, which they only sometimes made use of ; they take twenty- 

 four days to hatch. The young cocks do not attain their 

 full plumage until after the moult of the second summer ; 

 they drop their chicken feathers when about three months 

 old ; their plumage is then something like the hen's, but 

 sufficiently bright in some parts as easily to distinguish them 

 from the young females. In general, there are more cocks 

 than hens. 



Q 2 



