An Easter Tour Among Members' Aviaries. 233 
owner away, but the aviaries were practically untenanted, 
for of late Mr. Willford has been so busy photographing our 
native birds in their wild haunts — upon their native heath— 
that he has had no time for bird-keeping, and consequently 
of all the huge collection that at one "time peopled these 
aviaries with activity, beauty, and interest, only a few Pheas- 
ants and Waders remained. We spent the morning of Easter- 
Monday looking through them; to the writer almost every 
step was fraught with memories of the past; this tree, that 
bush, that tangle of bindweed and briar, and the grassy 
banks, all spoke eloquently of some episode of the life of 
the former feathered occupants, who had lived, yes, fought 
life's battle, reproduced their kind, and departed for the 
great unknown, within the precincts of what must have been 
a paradise for them. In imagination I was able to re-people 
it with its former inhabitants, and recall many episodes as 
the remains of nest after nest were seen in some of the trees 
and bushes; but, people it as one may with its past glory, 
it was but a ghostly glory, and what a Waste it seemed, 
that over an acre under wire should have gone almost unused 
for nearly two years— it was almost like exploring a deserted 
city. Mr. Haggle, who had teen feasting on construction 
and equipment details, storing up knowledge for future use, 
and admiring tlie wealth of wild natural cover, which is a 
feature of these extensive aviaries, said at last, " Such 
aviaries make one envious, yet how like it is to exploring 
an empty house " I Fortunately the aviaries have not been 
allowed to fall into ruin, and, I believe, Mr. Wilford is to 
mend his ways, and the aviaries are to be re -stocked next 
season. Well, we must hope that it will be so, for there is 
scarcely any living aviculturist who has such extensive accom- 
modation for any and every group of birds he chooses to keep 
— a reference to the past six volumes of " B.N." will indicate 
that my lament is restrained, and the aviaries themselves 
are done bare justice to. I fear their owner does not appre- 
ciate them, as he ought, though as a result of photograpliic zeal 
and skill, many beautiful pictures of bird-life have embellished 
our pages. 
In the afternoon we went over to Binstead and in- 
spected Mr. Yealland's stock, which we found to be rather 
