127 



IRotes on 1bou6ing auD 1bv>Gicne. 



By W. Geo. Cresweli,, M.D. Durli., L.R.C.P., F.Z.S. 

 {Continued from page 99). 



THERE is plenty of scope for an ingenious avicul- 

 turist in the building of these outside aviaries, 

 provided he can get the idea well rooted in his 

 mind that birds will come to no harm in the 

 open, and that simplicity of plan is the best order of 

 the day. For instance, say as summer quarters for 

 young Canaries, even if the owner were too timid to 

 use it in the winter, what could be prettier in the 

 centre of a lawn than a hexagonal or octagonal aviary 

 made entirely in sections of slate battens and wire 

 netting, with a well pitched roof coming up to a point 

 in the centre ? A few nasturtiums or a jasmine 

 trained over it would provide shade from the heat of 

 the July sun, and the internal shelter afforded by the 

 high pitch of the roof would be found to give sufficient 

 protection from rain and wind. The square one on my 

 own lawn, of which I give an illustration, I have 

 found very useful ; and many people have expressed 

 the opinion, in spite of the plain and simple design, 

 that it is also ornamental. By having a few perches 

 and shelves placed high up inside the roof, together 

 with plenty of cocoa-nut husks, for roosting quarters 

 at night, I have managed to keep in perfect health all 

 through two or three winters such birds as Canaries, 

 Indigo Buntings, Green and Grey Singing Finches, 

 Weavers, Budgerigars, White and Grey Javas, 

 Whydahs, various Mannikins, and several species of 

 our British birds. Even specimens which had been 

 imported during the summer I have found to do per- 

 fectly well in this aviary during the succeeding winter ; 

 and here again we get an object lesson, one that is 

 even stronger than is afforded by those aviaries 

 situated under the wall. Many mornings when the 



