On Outdoor 
Aviaries. 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
(14) 
Mr. T. Jones’ (Wednesbury) Aviary. 
Photo T. Jones. 
On Outdoor Aviaries. 
By W. GEO. CRESWELL, M.D. 
The capturing and taming and—in the case 
of some species—the domestication of birds has 
been a pastime of mankind from the earliest 
ages. Therefore the art of cage and aviary 
building may reasonably be supposed to be one 
ol the first arts practised by man. This being 
so, one would expect that ever since the first 
beginning there would have been a progres¬ 
sive improvement in the housing of our birds, 
and that by now there would be no necessity 
for the promulgation of hygienic ideas. But 
unfortunately for hundreds of years, in what 
is called the mediaeval period, the science of 
medicine consisted in the mere handing down 
by the monks of the Galenical doctrines with¬ 
out the slightest endeavour to test their sound¬ 
ness, with the result that it is only- within the 
memory of comparatively young men that any 
advance has been made towards the hygienic 
life, and that indeed not so much by the means 
of gradual evolution as by a sudden and violent 
revulsion from the ways of our forefathers. 
Even now the reform has not sufficiently in¬ 
vaded the bird-keeping world. People who fully 
appreciate the value of fresh air for themselves, 
and who proudly tell me that they live and sleep 
with their windows open all the year, thus daily 
deliver th’emselves when first admitted to my 
garden: “Oh! you’ve got aviaries out here! 
What a pretty place !—and birds in them, too ! 
What! canaries ? And do they live out here ? 
Don’t you take them in at night? Oh, and 
those dear little things! Look here, Clara, 
the doctor has got,” etc., etc. Then, turning to 
the amused owner : “ And you mean to say that 
these birds can really live out of doors?” it is 
no use to explain the why and wherefore of the 
astounding fact; one can only feebly say that 
birds have been used for countless generations 
to the outdoor life, and that for one’s own part 
there seems to be no marvel in it. Of course 
the inevitable answer comes, “ VVell, I've never 
heard of it. I’ve always been told that birds 
needed warmth, and especially canaries ancJ 
foreign birds.” And it is only too plain that, 
in spite of what they have just seen with their 
own eyes, and what they have just been told 
as a plain fact, they go away only half-con¬ 
vinced, for their last word is always, “Well, it’s 
most extraordinary,” and ever afterwards their 
