KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



11 



every week for the appearance of your 

 Paper, containing their letter, and your an- 

 swer, with all the avidity of young authors. 

 This will materially aid your circulation ; for 

 these individuals will purchase many extra 

 copies of your paper Avith a view to give 

 publicity to their own lucubrations. If you 

 understand these ' little amiable weaknesses ' 

 of society as well as I do, you will readily 

 estimate and fall in with my suggestions. 

 I offer them in a friendly spirit, and with 

 full confidence that, by and by, although 

 unknown to you, I shall reap your thanks." 



We have printed the letter of our good- 

 tempered correspondent verbatim et literatim, 

 for there is something in it that pleases us. 

 The idea is not a bad one, to work upon the 

 " little amiable weaknesses " of society ; 

 especially, when we give the quid pro quo. 

 As Ave have made the feathered tribes our 

 study, in doors and out of doors, for nearly 

 thirty years — Ave do think ourselves duly 

 qualified to hold " a consultation," Avhen 

 applied to. 



TO ALL WHO HAVE AVIARIES. 



As the study of birds, and a love for the 

 innocent amusement created by a careful 

 observation of their habits, is daily increas- 

 ing, Ave offer no apology for inserting, or 

 rather reprinting, the particulars of our OAvn 

 unique Collection of Birds, destroyed by 

 those pests of the farm and the garden — 

 Rats. We shall, in our next, give the 

 precise explanation of ~how Ave destroyed the 

 enemy : for Ave are Avell aAvare that this 

 subject is but too interesting to very many 

 Avho Avill read our London Journal. We 

 have been already, as will be seen elseAvhere, 

 consulted on the matter. The following 

 letter Avas addressed by us to the editor of 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle, and appeared in 

 that paper, January 12, 1850. Not being 

 now obtainable, it Avill be the more Avel- 

 come : — 



" Sir, — I have very frequently read in 

 your columns, remarks on the best and most 

 effectual means of getting rid of these 

 atrocious vermin; but as I have not myself 

 been personally interested at the time in 

 their destruction, 1 have only become theo- 

 retically acquainted Avith the subject in its 

 general bearings. I am uoav about to crave 

 the kind aid and advice of yourself and cor- 

 respondents on a matter, to me, of vital im- 

 port, and shall then be prepared to combine 

 practice with theory; the result shall as- 

 suredly be made known pro bono publico. 

 But to my grievance. 



" For the last tAventy years I have been 

 an amateur or " fancier " of song-birds ; and 

 many little anecdotes connected Avith their 



personal history have appeared in your paper 

 during the last feAV years. I built my birds, 

 at starting, a large commodious aviary, and 

 fitted it up in a style worthy of its inhabi- 

 tants — the agrtinens of Avell-polished look- 

 ing and toilet-glasses, everlasting fountains, 

 and leafy foliage, not being Avanting to 

 render their house an " ornithological pa- 

 lace." My collection has been noted as one 

 of the most select of its kind extant ; com- 

 prising nightingales and other foreign song 

 birds, and including specimens of nearly 

 every chorister of the English Avoods and 

 forests. 



" The extreme number of birds my aviary 

 has contained at one and the same time, 

 has been 366 ; it having been a " weak 

 point " Avith me to boast of having more 

 birds in my possession "than there Avere 

 days in a year." Alas ! I cannot say so 

 noAv ! 



" Built as it is on a most picturesque spot, 

 and arched over by a number of lofty fir 

 trees groAving immediately in its rear (in 

 Ravenscourt Park) — Nature and Art have 

 vied Avith each other to render the personnel 

 of my aviary unexceptionably beautiful. I 

 have been thus explicit, Avith the view to 

 place my yet unexplained grievance in a 

 strong light. I say grievance, for the aviary 

 is iioav completely dismantled, my birds are 

 reduced to the number of eleven only, — 

 Avhat a descent from poetry to prose ! — and 

 these, confined in wire cages, are kept 

 simply as mementoes of what they once 

 Avere. ' Troja fuit ! ' 



" Noav I trace all my misery to an army 

 of rats, Avhich, since the heavy rains of au- 

 tumn, have quitted their usual haunts and 

 unceremoniously " billeted " themselves 

 upon me. These murderers first made their 

 appearance at night, through holes eaten 

 in various parts of the floor ; and every 

 morning I as carefully nailed over the said 

 holes flattened pieces of zinc : this, for a 

 night or two, kept the marauders at bay. 

 HoAvever, they very soon reappeared, until 

 at last my flooring Avas almost completely 

 " tesselated " Avith zinc. Not imagining for 

 some time that they came to prey upon 

 the birds, I placed poisoned food in their 

 runs ; also "Harrison's Pills," &c, as strongly 

 recommended by your correspondents. All 

 these, hoAvever, remained untouched ; and 

 the frightful diminution of my feathered 

 friends, now apparent day by day, soon con- 

 vinced me of the aAvful extent of my mis- 

 fortune. 



" The climax is soon reached. On opening 

 the aviary door one morning, about a fort- 

 night since, a scene of devastation pre- 

 sented itself which I will not, indeed can- 

 not, attempt to describe. Suffice it to say, 

 my eye fell instinctively on a large hole in 



