53 



The oiil\- heat is from a small oil stove and an 

 ■oil lamp, which are lighted at fonr o'clock in the after- 

 noon and kept bnrninj^ all night. Since having the 

 stove I have lost no small birds. The temperature goes 

 down to 32 deg., and is never in winter above 50 deg. 

 This is the second winter for nearly all the birds. I shut 

 them in only at night and on a very wet day. I had in 

 the spring nine Zebra Finches and now have thirty-two. 



N. Tv. F. DUNIvEATH. 



THE EDITOR'S LETTER BOX. 



METHODvS OF WARMING AVIARIES. 



Sir, — I will begin by explaining what my aviary 

 and bird-room are like ; they are roughly made, for 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 iny bird-room. There is a wall 

 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 itp, 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 more 

 fresh air, and of the sunshine and rain. 



I use gas for heating in the following way. There is 

 a kind of metal urn with the bottom off, which stands on 

 four bricks over a No. 4 gas burner (a large aviary would 

 require a larger burner). This urn has a tin pipe at 

 the top of it which is carried to the top of the aviar\' 

 and across it, and then through the roof, with a small 

 cowl on the opening of the pipe to prevent a down 

 draught. This I find answers admirably — the urn and 

 pipe get so hot that you cannot bear your hand on them, 

 and to save the birds from burning themselves I put a 

 cage of half-inch mesh wire netting over the urn. To 

 see the birds fight for a place on the cage at night is 

 most amusing. The laying on of the gas, the urn, pipe. 



