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lean-to aviar}' adjoining is 6ft. high, 5ft. deep, and 21ft. 

 long: this has a double wire front, and tarred wood roof; 

 adjoining this is another about 12ft. square, covered 

 with corrugated iron, with wire on two sides, and brick 

 walls on the other two. The aviaries can be patitioned 

 ofif into five by closing the sliding doors over the 

 pigeon-holes, or made into one, as necessity requires. 

 At the present time they are made into one, and the 

 birds are all flying together, hard-bills and soft — except 

 the Magpie, Jay, American Mocking Bird, and Black- 

 bird. These birds are all tyrants in an aviary with 

 others, also the Chaffinch and Robin at times. It is 

 natural for the two first-named to be so, for to some 

 extent they are carnivorous, and will kill and eat mice 

 almost as quickh^ as a cat. A caged Magpie of mine 

 escaped into the aviary and killed a Starling by 

 pecking him through the neck, and then pecked off 

 all the feathers b}^ wa}^ of amusement. I might add 

 that my British birds, except the migratory ones, 

 are out in the open all the winter, and are never any 

 the worse for it. 



M}' appliances are gardener's and bricklaj^er's 

 trowels, bass and hair brooms, large and small cage 

 scrapers, crumb brush, dustpan and liand-brush, 

 garden rake, hoe, shovel and spade. 



Experience has taught me that the best soft food 

 is not the food you buy ready prepared, but what you 

 prepare yourself. Some desiccated yolk of egg was 

 analysed a short time back by a friend of mine, and 

 found to contain lard, pea-meal, and egg-colouring; 

 but, worse still, the yolk itself was bad. I need hardly 

 say his Nightingales would not touch it. The pre- 

 served yolk they had previousl}' been fed upon they 

 ate and thrived on. I mix my food in this way : I put 

 three hard-boiled hen's eggs into a bowl, crumble bread 

 of about the same bulk, grate a small portion of carrot, 

 stir up well together with a steel fork, afterwards 



