118



Foxwarren Park



becomes cold. The outside flights, instead of being formed on an

iron or ordinary timber framework, are of larch poles which gives

a rustic appearance and answers the purpose admirably.


The population of these aviaries, of which there are two ranges,

each consisting of eight separate aviaries opening into two very

large outer flights, is very large and contains very many rarities such

as Madagascar Partridges, Renault’s Ground Cuckoos, Blacksmith,

White-winged, South African Wattled and Australian Black-breasted

Plovers, Fairy Bluebirds, Sun Bitterns, Japanese Jays, Crowned

Pigeons, and a host of others, not forgetting a South African Bee-eater

which has lived there for six years and is still going strong.


A range of twenty-three smaller aviaries each designed for a single

pair of birds where they may be undisturbed for breeding, and here one

finds the rare Starlings such as Rothschild’s Grackle and the Crowned

Starling, both of which bred successfully last year for the first time.

These aviaries consist of shelters and wired flights, and there is an

excellent arrangement for feeding from the back through a small

trap-door without entering the aviary.


Then there is the range of Parrakeet aviaries where the Queen

Alexandra Parrakeets bred so successfully last year and the hen is

sitting now. Malabars are also nesting, and the wonderful Blue

Alexandrine and many of his progeny, Lutino Ringnecks, Derbians,

and a splendid pair of Hooded Parrakeets may be seen.


The Bird Room, near the house, contains a number of rare Birds

of Paradise, rare Woodpeckers, Amethyst Starlings, and many other

rare birds which are kept in special large cages.


In the garden itself is a flock of Demoiselle Cranes which come right

up to the house to be fed, when they are generally accompanied by a

pair or two of full-winged Chukar Partridges and some of the numerous

Indian Spotted Turtle-Doves that are at large in the grounds.


Looking to the West from the house one gets a beautiful view away

to the valley of the Wey, which appears as a silver streak in the distance,

while in the foreground are seen Cranes, deer, wallabies, and Pheasants,

which are enclosed in a space of some fifty acres including wooded

hills, scrub, and gorse on the high ground, which falls away to grass¬

land, on which are herds of deer and antelopes and flocks of Cranes.



