Mrs. Darnton—My Scarlet Tanagers



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she seemed dazed. I christened her “ Nellie Knowles 55 after a nurse

we had as children, whom we considered a little ee dippy ” ! When we

got home I turned her out with the cock—“ Rouge et Noir ”—where

she lived happily till early October when I brought them both into

the house.


There they lived in a large cage, about 5 ft. high by 5 ft. wide by

3 ft. deep, with a Superb Tanager, two cock Fischer’s, a Pintail, and a

Paradise Whydah, and later I bought a pair of Blue Robins, a cock

Shama, and a pair of Pekins. They all lived most amiably together,

except Rouge et Noir and Nellie—she turned out a most exacting

spouse and was continually rowing him. If he went down for a bite of

banana she thought she would like some too and would sit and swear

at him with her “ hair ” on end, and snapping at him until she had

driven him off. Even if he were sitting snoozing on a branch which

she suddenly fancied he had nothing but unpleasantness until he had

given it up. All the softbills got very tame during the winter, most

of them perching on my arm when I whistled for them. They all had

the run of the room, our sitting-room by the way, when I cleaned them

out, which, as I had numerous other cages to do, generally took an

hour and a half every morning. They all flew out of their cage in more

or less of a stream when I whistled and always went back at the end

of their playtime. Even newcomers got into the routine after about

a week, and it was only on the very rarest occasions that I had to take

the net to any of them. A couple of hen canaries were the only stubborn

ones—these I had to net nearly every morning until I got so sick of

catching them that I put them into a separate cage.


When May came I put the Scarlet Tanagers in the shelter of the

new aviary. This has a flight about 40 ft. by 20 ft. planted with

a large privet bush, a couple of dogwoods, and a row of Cypress

Macrocarpa and Retinosperas down the north side to act as a wind

break. The aviaries, by the way, are in the centre of the rose garden,

which is surrounded by a high screen of climbing roses and backed on

the north by an apple orchard.


Already in February I had noticed Nellie Knowles, the hen Tanager,

showing signs of that spring-like feeling. When loose in the room

she was continually making up to Rouge et Noir and even picking the



