Edward Boosey—Gentlemen only



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can do in the way of sudden changes does show how enormously even

the most notoriously delicate birds benefit from plenty of fresh air and

exercise as opposed to coddling in a hothouse.


A striking example of this was a consignment of Painted Finches—•

the genuine article Emblema jpicta —which arrived here in March. They

were doing so badly in a large cage in our acclimatizing room, whose

temperature never falls much below 70° in winter, that in desperation

I turned them out into an aviary with a heated shelter. In this, though

they persisted in spending most of their time out in the wire run in

anything but genial weather, they rapidly improved and are now all

in perfect condition.


To return, however, to my bachelor aviary : The Niltava is always

listening. He will sit for minutes on end almost motionless with

his head cocked on one side and his wonderfully vivid cobalt blue

cap and orange russet breast shining in the sun. Then quite suddenly

he will jerk his tail up and down, will as it were float swiftly up to

one of the larch uprights of the aviary, capture his prey, and be off

again with his rapid slanting flight into the undergrowth. After that

one often sees nothing more of him until evening, when he usually

perches on the highest branch in the aviary to greet the gathering

dusk with his miniature twilight song—a tiny silvery cascade of muted

bells.


Perhaps the Niltava’s extreme reluctance to show himself is his

chief drawback as an aviary bird. So much of his time is spent skulking

in the thick undergrowth, though even this probably adds to the

pleasure one has in seeing him when he does sometimes come out to

sit in the sun.


If Niltavas seldom show themselves, however, this applies even more

to two other and later editions to the aviary—the beautiful Rainbow

and Versicolor Buntings. Incidentally, I had no idea until I actually

saw the latter, which is one of the rarest of the Buntings, how extremely

lovely he is with his perfectly blended blues, mauves, and purplish

reds. Most of the illustrations I have seen make the bird appear a sad

mess of jumbled jarring colours, though in fairness to the artists

one should own that a Versicolor must be a difficult bird to do justice

to on paper.



