88



John Wilcock—-Some Aims and Ideals in Aviculture



possibly Rosellas, but the prices of these birds have risen considerably.

I do not know whether the demand has increased rather rapidly ;

perhaps it has, and now that the ubiquitous Budgerigar no longer

commands a high price people are turning to other Parrakeets. I hope

some such explanation is correct, otherwise we are driven to the

conclusion that the young from the wild caught birds which were in

the country when the ban was imposed are already proving, in the

first or second generation of aviary-breeding, not so virile and prolific

as their parents. I fear that because they show such a willingness to

go to nest and produce young, we sometimes take too much for

granted with birds like the Cockatiel, Redrumps, and the Lovebirds,

giving them quarters which are only fit for Budgerigars. True, with

little room, and on stale ground, they produce young which sometimes

look all right—and sometimes don’t ; Lovebirds sometimes leave

the nest half feathered, but fortunately these soon grow and make

them look good stock birds. But are they proving so ?


The more seriously we take our hobby, the more we realize what

a lot is still not known, and that our methods are still empirical, even

with the species which are most commonly kept. It seems to be

accepted that, with many of the larger parrakeets and particularly

the Broadtails, close confinement (as in a cage) leads to sterility in

the male, and that cramped quarters, whilst not sufficiently bad to

prevent young being produced, have a detrimental result on the young,

some being obviously weakly or suffering from some defect. Many

of us have doubtless accepted the suggestion of the Marquess of

Tavistock that it is desirable to have an aviary 24 by 8 ft. for the

larger parrakeets. I gather from our Editor’s account in the September

number that those at Keston “ strike one as being on the small size ”.

It would be interesting to know what size they find satisfactory, and

whether they have any information on the subsequent breeding

results of the young birds bred in these smaller aviaries. Most

people I think would agree that such birds as the Cockatiel, Redrump,

and the Lovebirds can be kept in smaller aviaries, for they certainly

can produce in small quarters young which appear nice birds. But

it is apparently the fact that the reproductive organs are more

susceptible to adverse conditions than the rest of the birds’ make-up.



