Aviary Notes fi'oii} Nurthcrn Ireland. 149 



covered flii^ht, putting- doors between and windows — but the 

 plan will give my readers a much better idea of my design, in 

 which I was greatly influenced by the bird houses at the Zoo. 

 and in a very small way I tried to copy them. 



This, you see. gives me a good place to put food for the 

 birds, but more of this anon. We now proceeded to make 

 the flight. This is made of half inch mesh wire lapped together 

 so that looking through the front and sides one is not bothered 

 with great lines of three inch timber spoiling the view. The 

 flg-ht therefore is about 14ft. x 6ft. x 7ft. high, and like the 

 house is divided into three divisions (see plan), with communi- 

 cating doors of light wood framing covered with half-inch mesh 

 wire. From the elevation you will see that the roof projects 

 into the flight about one foot; this certainly makes it more 

 difficult to, say, catch a bird or drive a strange bird in at night, 

 but on the other hand it is a splendid place for them to sit and 

 sun themselves in the morning, as it gets very warm on this 

 roof, and they are protected from draught by a deep board 

 running along the roof on its edge, this board taxing the 

 wire netting of the flight. 



The next thing I had to think out was the arrangement of 

 the flight. I flrst made a gravel path running straight through 

 next to the cement floor of the covered flight. Then I got the 

 gardener to get me some large and coarse grass sods and we 

 planted them with an edging of boxwood. As the weather 

 turned wet we had no trouble with the grass or plants. After 

 T got the sods down I paid a visit to a Nursery, and there I was 

 much disappointed to find I could not get a few firs as I was 

 told that at that time of year (June) they couldn't be moved, but 

 ! secured some fine Box trees, so I put a small one and a big 

 one in each flight, and they never looked back in spite of 

 warnings by various gardeners. 



Our next consideration was perches, so I cut down a few 

 Sycamore seedlings, when the top parts were cleaned of leaves ; 

 these made beautiful shapely perches, and the birds took to them 

 .It once. Some I hung up to the rafters of the flight, others I 

 nailed up to the corners. Next I cut a lot of small branches, 

 which I nailed up in various parts of the covered flight and 

 sleeping compartment, putting in between various nesting boxes 



