All Rights Reserved. July and August, 1923 



BIRD NOTES. 



THE 



Journal of the Foreign Bird Club. 



The Inveresk Lodge Aviary. 



By M. R. Tomlinson. 



By courtesy of Mr. J. D. Brunton, one of our new 

 members, I am able to give the following- particulars regarding 

 the waders' aviary recently erected by him at his residence, 

 Inveresk Lodge, Midlothian. 



The aviary is beautifully situated in a wooded park, and, 

 while receiving abundance of what sunlight is going, is well 

 sheltered from the north and east by the rising ground on which 

 the gardens are laid out, the confines of the park in other 

 directions being bounded by larg'e trees. A reference to the 

 photographs will make the following description clear. The 

 aviary is formed of half-inch mesh wire-netting, stretched on 

 substantial iron circular-section tubular supports, solidly set in 

 a cement kerb. This is sunk in the ground to a depth of 

 eighteen inches, and a broad ash-path running right round the 

 enclosure is calculated to betray any attempts by rats to burrow 

 beneath it. The open flight is seventy-five feet long by twenty- 

 five broad, while a shelter conforming in shape and rising to the 

 full height — fifteen feet at the highest point — extends another 

 thirteen feet. As will be noticed, the bottom four feet or 

 thereabouts of the tubes is carried straight down, giving plenty 

 of height close to the sides. The end opposite to the shelter 

 is formed by a brick wall, behind which a small " observation 

 house " with sliding wooden panels opening into the aviary 

 forms a comfortable and practically invisible position for 

 watching the doings of the birds. The photo of the interior 

 Vvas taken from within this house. 



There is a good natural water supply, which is led into the 

 aviary in front of the observation house, whence it falls into a 

 tastefully designed pond of from two to three feet deep. From 



