E. W. Chaplin—Avicultural Recollections



157



bantams as mothers. Joseph, the cock Golden, was very tame, and

liked being handled. He had the curious habit of hying straight on

to the top of my head whenever I went into the aviary.


One of his wives (he was a Mormon and had three !) also had a

curious, but less amusing, habit. She almost always laid her eggs when

sitting on a perch, thus acquiring the name of “ the Absent-minded

Beggar ”. Pheasant owners who have not tried it may like to know

that there was nothing at any time of the year that my birds more

appreciated than bunches of ripe elderberries hung from the roof.

These I hung a little above their easy reach in order that they should

have to jump to get at them.


Later I filled in the space between the ends of the two aviaries.

The sides were the boarded ends of the larger aviaries, the back and

the back slope of the roof were boarded and also the front slope for

about half its depth, the front being wired with fine mesh netting.

Prom the lower edge of the boarding the wiring was carried out like a

dormer window. I had a movable glass frame made to cover this

part in winter but the front was left unprotected except that in foggy

weather I hung a garden mat there. One winter was so cold that the

water had to be renewed two or three times a day.


In this aviary I kept Gouldian and Zebra Pinches, Cordon Bleus,

Pintail Whydahs, and several other varieties. Of these all the cocks

and both of the Whydahs lived for some years and were only disposed

of at the outbreak of the War.


I did not at this time realize that it was not difficult to breed some

of the little foreigners and had made very inadequate provision for such

activities on their part, though just enough to lead their thoughts in

that direction. The result was that each spring I lost most of the

hens from egg-binding. It was not the aviary but my ignorance that

was to blame for this.


Prom 1915 to 1929 I had no aviary but in the latter year I put

up one in my present garden. The end of a wooden shed forms one

side of it. It is 12 feet long, 4 feet wide, and in height slopes from

9 to 6 feet. At the higher end it is boarded to form an inner shelter

with a fairly large window. It has a door into the flight which is

left open in the summer, a small square cut out of the top corner of



