PRIVATE AVIARIES.
DURING the winter months new aviaries are to be built for the storks and cranes at the Zoo. As these are all " outdoor birds " from the collector's point of view, there is little doubt that the main feature in the new constructions will be the provision of courts and fountains, among which these eminently decorative birds can show themselves off to the best advantage. But there is no obvious reason why the
beauty of aviaries should not be developed, untrammelled by considerations which influence learned societies, for the aesthetic satisfaction of private owners. There are at the present time at least a dozen mansions of the first order of taste and magnificence in process of building for South African and other millionaires. If any of the fortunate owners desire to add a new and beautiful feature to his home, we would suggest a private aviary, in which, among the flowers and trees of a winter-garden or palm-house, the most gorgeous foreign birds might add colour and movement. The belief that birds of paradise could live and thrive in the glass pavilions of Kew and the Botanical Gardens is held by Mr. Wallace, the author of "The Malay Archipelago."
It is evident," he writes, "that the paradise-birds are very hardy, and require air and exercise rather than heat; and I feel sure that if a good-sized conservatory were devoted to them, or that if they could be turned loose in the Tropical Department of the Crystal Palace, or the great Palm-house at Kew, they would live in this country for many years."
Such an experiment deserves to be tried, and if carried out by private individuals on a sufficiently large scale, it promises a rare combination of the msthetic charm of foliage, birds, and Sowers. Space and height are essential if such a combination is to succeed, and light is necessary to the health both of trees and birds. Fortunately the material which provides light for the former is a means of health for the latter. " If I could," wrote a noted bird-fancier, "I would have a glass cage with glass perches for all my birds." Make an ample glass palace, lofty enough for palms and tree-ferns, and light enough for birds to sun themselves and flowers to blossom, and the first conditions of the sumptuous private aviary are fulfilled. Through it, if possible, there should run a small rill of water, shallow and running over marble -or stone. If there are small spraying fountains in it so much the better, for the birds will bathe in the one and sit beneath the other, letting the spray play upon their backs. That is what they did when the bose-fountains were left on lawns during the heat of the summer, and apart from the prettiness of the sight it keeps their feathers bright. Two other advantages follow from the space and the height allotted to such an aviary. The birds, which will not be crowded, 'but are meant to please rather by their rare beauty than by their numbers, will find in the height of the trees which reach the upper spans of roof, seclusion and natural repose. There they will rest, sing if they have voices, and build their nests if fortune favours the experiment so far that they not only live long lives, but perpetuate their species. It is far from improbable that even the paradise-birds might do this, just as the tropical parrots built their nests in Mr. Buxton's woods in Suffolk. In the next place, these gorgeous birds
fly if kept in aviaries of large dimensions; and it is rare indeed for a bird to exhibit half its beauties unless seen in flight. However fine their plumage, there is a natural ten- dency to assimilation or subduing of colours when the wings are closed and the bird at rest, which disappears on the instant that it abandons concealment and spreads its wings and tail to fly. Like the red-underwing moths, they keep their brightest colours for display in movement. The wings and tail at rest are closed fans. They must be opened to show the colours of each feather. From the lories and humming- birds to the flamingoes, the hoopoes, or the jays of our own woods, the movement of flight gives a double msthetic value to colouring. For curiosity, compare the scarlet ibises when flying among the willow-boughs in the outdoor aviary at the Zoo, with the chained parrots of more brilliant colours in the northern garden.
If the trees are to predominate, as they should predominate in a glass house of the largest dimensions, the owner of taste and unlimited means would do well to choose, as his avian population, birds of paradise only. The price is high,— Mr. Wallace gave £100 apiece for the first which he brought over; but this is nothing to the sums given for a new orchid to form an insignificant addition in point of beauty to such a floral palace, and the price of birds of paradise has not been maintained. It is true that orchids last for years. and birds are more liable to accident. But there is no reason why birds of paradise should not live longer than many other species. They are, in fact, a species of crow, and have everything in their favour for long life. They are mainly fruit-eaters, the best of all birds for aviaries, and only require in addition a supply of insect-food, which "mealworms " provide in any quantity desired. The great bird of paradise "is very active and vigorous, and in motion all day long," and those brought home by Mr. Wallace were omnivorous, feeding greedily on figs, cockroaches, rice, and bananas,—all common articles in London, where cockroaches are more plentiful than on the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer, in which Mr. Wallace had some difficulty in catching a supply for his birds. At Malacca, a great bird of paradise was seen which had lived for nine years in captivity. It was quite tame, and in per- fect plumage. To preserve this was its chief care. It never descended to the ground, except twice a day to bathe, after which it plumed all its feathers with its beak, and finally " looked itself over " to see that each feather was in its place. When once established the owner might select a " line " in birds of paradise, as fanciers do in poultry. The excitement of importing, and possibly breeding, the rare and beautiful varieties from the Moluccas and New Guinea should divert some of the energy now spent on orchid-hunting. The imagi- nation almost fails to paint the effect of the flight of these birds amongst foliage such as that in the palm-house at Kew. M. Lesson describes it as resembling "a brilliant meteor in the forest." Our palm-houses are at present palaces of stillness and silence ; the vegetation is monotonous and almost oppressive. It needs the change of movement and plumage to give it life and colour. In smaller aviaries, but also stocked with trees and shrubs, the owner, still confining his efforts to a single family of birds, might keep the most beautiful of the many species of dove. There are doves of all colours and all sizes, from the gigantic crowned pigeon, all purple and blue, to tiny ground doves no larger than sparrows, or the green doves of the West Indies. A less decorative, but not less pleasing, experiment in the private aviary might be made by forming a collection of those birds which have special aptitudes for nest-building or decoration.
No one has as yet given the bower-birds a fair chance of building a bower to their liking, such as they might form in a spacious winter-garden, and there is no reason why, in the bird of paradise palace, the gardener-bird itself might not make and decorate its pavilions at the foot of the trees, while the more gorgeous birds occupied their tops. Nor is it impossible that in the equable climate of the glass palece enough flowers might bloom the year round to find food for tame humming-birds. One of the most beautiful of these, the ruby-throated humming-bird, is a North American species, visiting Pennsylvania every summer, and other kinds have been found in the cold climate of Tierra del Fuego to the south, and north as far as Nootka Sound. The food of the ruby-throated humming-birds consists as much of tiny insects as of "nectar," and if they could be once delivered safely, they would live among the flowers as readily as the humming-bird moth, which constantly invades conservatories. The tailor-bird, which sews leaves together with tendrils, and the weaver-birds, which construct joint nests, might be included among the inhabitants of smaller aviaries, if these be not overcrowded. Numbers, noise, and a general jumble of non - related species, the common feature of modern aviaries, mast all be avoided in the model bird-palace.
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