67 



Britieb Birbe : Ibow to Ikccp tbcm for 

 Song ant> lEybibition.^ 



By Arthur Jones. 



I WILL comtneiice by explaining what my aviaries 

 and bird-room are like ; they are roughly made, 

 as you will probably imagine when I tell you I 

 am my own architect and builder. There is a 

 room built out at the back of my house, and roofed 

 with zinc ; on this roof I have built my bird-room. 

 There are walls on three sides of it, and the front I 

 have made with four large windows. 



The roof I made with four large shutters, and 

 covered the same with zinc ; these I can take down 

 and put up, according to the state of the weather; 

 there is also a wire roof, so that when the shutters 

 are down the birds have the benefit of the fresh 

 air. I have gas and water laid on ; the gas I use 

 for heating purposes, by placing a kind of metal urn 

 over it; the urn has a pipe in the top which carries 

 off the fumes through the roof. When I want the gas 

 for boiling eggs, I take away the urn, and use an 

 atmospheric gas boiler. The room has shelves round 

 for the cages, also four mouse-proof aviaries. 



My aviaries are all connected, and the one adjoin- 

 ing the bird-room has a roof on a level with the bird- 

 room roof, and is about 20ft. high from the ground ; 

 the roof is made with wire, a small mesh wire inside, 

 and a larger mesh yin. above, to keep the cats from 

 reaching the birds at night, when my Scotch Terrier 

 is asleep. Two pigeon-holes are cut in the glass of the 

 bird-room, to enable the birds to fly into the aviary in 

 the yard, and there are large zinc-roofed box cages on 

 the wall to give the birds shelter and warmth. Another 



* This article contains the substance of a paper read before the 

 N. B. E. & M. C. some years ago, but has been specially revised by the 

 author for these pages. — Ed, 



