146 
My Aviaries. 
in the garden and he would at once call out and, run about 
on the wire-netting-, waiting for the expected mealworm, of 
which he was very fond. I have kept several Greater Spotted 
Woodpeckers and they are most interesting birds to "Iceep. 
There i- one drawback, they do a considerable amount of dam- 
age to the woodwork, viz.: hammering it to bits; liut even 
this has a remedy and I found that by placing the half- 
rotten trunk of a dead tree in the flight, they left the wood- 
work alone, and spent many and I think happy hours in 
making the splinters fly with their energetic carpentry. 
,1 suppose the ultimate object and aim of all a,viculturists 
is to induce and help their birds to successfully breed in 
the quarters provided. At least it seems to me that the 
greatest compliment our birds can pay us, for all the trouble 
we take to make them as nearly " at home," as possible is 
to reproduce their kind. Personally, I have not had much 
luck; the only birds I have so far bred, besides the inevitable 
Catthroats {Amadina fasciata), Zebra Finches {Twnuypygia 
castanoHs) and Budgerigars {Mdopsittarus undulatus) are: 
Blood-rump Parrakeets {Psephotus hcRmatonotus): Four 
young of this species left the nest on May 30th, and are doing 
well. 
Reed Bunting {Emberiza schceniclus) : These nested and 
laid a clutch jf two eggs, and duly hatched out a couple of 
chicks, which they did not rear. They placed their nest in 
a dwarf pine tree. 
Quail: Californian (Lophorti/x calif ornicus), and Rain 
{Coturnix coromandelica) Quails have done fairly well and 
young have been reared on more than one occasion. 
Diamond Doves (Geopelia cimeata): With ^this charm- 
ing, minute, and chastely-coloured species I have not bad 
much luck. At the present time I have seven, which I 
kept altogether in the largest aviary, but they were continu- 
ally fighting, which, perhaps, is scarcely surprising, as I 
think there were but two hens among them. The other day 
I caught up an obvious pair and put them by themselves, 
with the result that nest-building was commenced at once, and 
the hen is now incubating a clutch of two eggs. 
In another aviary, not in the pb-otograph, which I 
had put up this spring for Quails, which is divided into two 
