152 
Good n7}d End Pohifs in My Aviaries. 
the birds' supplied witii clean water. Several species brought 
ofi yoiinjj' hei-e the firsi season, my greatest succes.-^ 1>eing the 
reariiif,- of a fi'ooj) of Squamata x Californian Quail hybrids, 
for wiiioh the Societe Xationale d'Acclimatation of Paris a- 
warded me their inedal and diploma. 
All tlie l>ii-ds (lid well here; the wheat grew to a 
good height and was much liked AA'hen half ripe: a bed of 
artichokes which erew to reach the wire roof, made fine cx)ver 
and al.so a hai)py hunting-ground for the small in.sect- eaters. 
The aviai'y had one drawback, viz.: the utter impossibility of 
catching, in anything like a reasonable time, any bird that 
happened to lie wanted. Pursuing them with a landing net* 
was of course quite hopeless, and trapping was the only way; 
this meant practically starving all the occupants for the sake 
of catching one or two, a procedure quite fatal to any that 
happened to he nesting. 
The next season I decided to cut the above aviary up 
into thi'ee divisions, and the one jireviously described into two. 
My last ye<ar's results as reported in " B.N." quite justify, 
I tliink, the alteration. T may say that T have a shallow 
cement-pond in each aviaiy, tlirougli which a small stream 
of water constantly pa.sses, this is a gretit addition. Tn the 
winter the doors in the divisions are thrown open, giving all 
the birds wintering therein access to the shelter. In the 
breeding sea.son three of these enclosures have no inside shelter, 
but I cannot see that tlie birds suffer in any way. 
In tlie mattei' of stocking aviaries, there is much to 'l>e 
learnt— certain birds will agree together and others will not; 
then again individual bii'ds vai'y considerably in their temper 
and disposition, .'-^onie asMculturists find certain .species agree- 
ing well togethei' in their aviai'ies, wliilst others with the same 
.specie.; under exactly similar conditions have had a lot of 
trouble. For instance, for three years I have kept a breeding 
pair of Rosella Parrakeets with a lot of small Finches, etc., 
and up to tiiis last season ail lias gone well, but this summer 
I found a cock C^ouldian Finch with his leg badly bitten; I 
think the culprit was one of the young Rosellas, five of which 
were flying in the aviary at the time, (iouldian flinches are 
* Birds can iisually be caught with a flue -net in a reasonable time, even 
in thi- largest aviaries. — Ed. 
