"90 John WilcocJc—Some Aims and Ideals in Aviculture


generalizations might be made and if in time these were then embodied

in “ official recommendations ” we might be spared a number of

the unsatisfactory aviary-bred birds which are to be found on the

market.


So far as I can remember, no one seems to have given any

attention to the humidity of the atmosphere in their aviary shelters

yet it may be found that for callow young it has its importance.

Perhaps if we have given it a thought at all, we have felt that the

usual British weather precludes any danger of over-dryness, but this

may not be so. Last season has been an exceptionally fine, dry

summer, ideal for foreign birds from warmer climates, one would

say. Have aviculturists found it so from their breeding results ?

The Marquess of Tavistock, writing in the October number of the

Magazine, says “ 1933 has been, on the whole, rather a disappointing

season, the number of young birds reared being considerably below

the output of 1932 ” and states that this was partly (but only partly)

due to breeding pairs coming to an untimely end before the season

commenced. In the August number Monsieur Decoux writes,

“ The present breeding season has so far been rather good in spite

of the rainy weather.” (The italics are mine.) Ought he to have

said “ because of ” the rainy weather ! The Marquess of Tavistock

recently wrote that he now finds it is the location of the nest that

matters with some species (if I remember rightly he was referring to

the Grass Parrakeets) and that it is hopeless to place this inside the

shelter. Let me give my experience with Kosellas this year to show

the point I am trying to make. I have two pairs and, because I am

750 feet above sea-level and in a rather bleak situation, I neither start

breeding early nor have nest-boxes in the flights. But I reason thus.

The inside of a well-constructed aviary shelter is as dry as dust, as

dry as a desert, or even drier, for there is no dew. Even in a continent

of deserts and droughts, like Australia, we find the birds are found

along the water courses or grass-banks (purely desert species excepted).

My nest-boxes are natural tree trunks, but with artificial (i.e. wooden)

tops and bottoms. Throughout the winter they have been where

natural nests would be—outside in the rain, not stored in a dry shed,

so that when placed in the aviary in spring they would not be bone



