Favourite Foreign Birds for Cages and Aviaries. W. T. Greene

      

      FAVOURITE FOREIGN BIRDS

      AND

      CAGES AND AVIARIES.

      PARROTS. PARROTS.

      Any person wishing to Purchase one of these, the most interesting of all Birds, should send to the

      

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      LIVERPOOL.

      FAVOURITE

      FOREIGN BIRDS

      FOR

      CAGES AND AVIARIES.

      BY

      W. T. GREENE, M.D., M.A., &c.,

      Author of “Parrots in Captivity,” “Birds I have Kept,” “The Birds in my Garden,” “Song Birds of Great Britain,” “The Amateur’s Aviary,” “Diseases of Cage Birds,” &c.; Editor of “Notes on Cage Birds.”

      ISBN 978-1-4067-9534-9

      PREFACE.

      FOREIGN bird keeping is a very delightful pursuit, but in order to attain complete success in it, there are a few points that must be observed. For instance, the habits of the different little captives must be studied, and their food and lodgment, as well as the temperature at which they are kept, must be approximated as nearly as possible to what they were accustomed to in their own country; but it is only experience, gathered from reliable guide-books or bought by painful disaster and loss, that will enable the fancier to select those birds best suited for his circumstances, and give him the knowledge necessary for their preservation and well-being, and also for his own satisfaction.

      I have borne all this in view in the following pages, and while describing the different species that experience has shown to be the most suitable subjects for domestication, have indicated the food and treatment necessary for each, and any points connected with their management that have seemed to me likely to be of use.

      With these general remarks I will now refer my readers to the work itself, in the hope that the information there given will enable them to keep foreign birds not only for pleasure, but for profit; and in this connection I will observe that a well-conducted aviary should certainly be self-supporting—in some cases I have known it “pay.”

      W. T. GREENE.

      MOIRA HOUSE,

      PECKHAM RYE, SURREY.

      May, 1891.

      CONTENTS.

       I.INTRODUCTION

       II.THE CARDINAL FAMILY

       III.THE CROW FAMILY

       IV.THE DOVE FAMILY

       V.THE DRONGO FAMILY

       VI.THE FINCH FAMILY

       VII.THE KINGFISHER FAMILY

       VIII.THE LARK FAMILY

       IX.THE MANNIKIN FAMILY

       X.THE OWL FAMILY

       XI.THE PARROT FAMILY

       XII.THE QUAIL FAMILY

       XIII.THE ROBIN FAMILY

       XIV.THE SPARROW FAMILY

       XV.THE STARLING FAMILY

       XVI.THE TANAGER FAMILY

       XVII.THE THRUSH FAMILY

       XVIII.THE WARBLER FAMILY

       XIX.THE WAXBILL FAMILY

       XX.THE WEAVER FAMILY

      FAVOURITE FOREIGN BIRDS.

      CHAPTER I.

       INTRODUCTION.

      Popularity of Aviculture—Native and Exotic Races Compared—Classification—Scientific Names.

      AVICULTURE, long since carried to perfection in France and Germany, is yet in its infancy in Great Britain, though vastly more people are interesting themselves about birds at the present day than used to be the case a dozen years ago, when very few amateurs had any knowledge of the beautiful and attractive feathered denizens of foreign lands, many of which are now being naturalised in our midst, and have become almost as abundant as our own canaries or sparrows.

      At first