THE BREEDING-ROOM 



43 



to exclude those known to be of a most 

 cruel and bloodtliirsty disposition. In old 

 buildings in which the walls are none of 

 the soundest, a weasel or stoat may easily 

 secrete himself and play havoc. These 

 gentlemen can squeeze through an opening 

 something smaller than a crack ; indeed, 

 the how, when, and where of their ingress 

 is often a mystery, and they must be 

 guarded against with extreme watchfulness. 

 We need only refer to a disastrous loss 

 sustained by the late IMr. J. Yallop, of 

 Cossey, near Xoi'wich, when a stoat which 

 obtained admission to his bird-room des- 

 troyed between sixty and seventy valuable 

 birds, to show the necessity for vigilance 

 in this direction. The lessons of such 

 a catastrophe shoidd not be lost upon 

 thoughtfid fanciers, who should ever study 

 to reduce the possibility of an accident 

 within the narrowest limits. 



On page 44 we give a sketch of the interior 

 of a bird-room with a view to instructing 



our readers in the arrange- 

 An Outside ^^^^^^^ ^j ^j^^ ^ -^^ ^j 



Bird=House. ... ^ , , 



breedmg-room to the best 



advantage. This sketch is of an outside 

 bird-house the property of an enthusiastic 

 Yorkshire breeder, Mr. W. Gladwin, of 

 Cat ford, which for efficient arrangement 

 would be difficult to surpass. The house 

 is built of stout matchboarding with an 

 inner lining of the same material ; the 

 space between the two is filled with saw- 

 dust, thus dovibly protecting the house 

 from the vagaries of the weather. The 

 roof is of Gothic design, and is made of 

 stout matchboarding covered with corru- 

 gated iron ; the front, back, and sides of 

 the house are also covered with this material, 

 making it entirely weather-proof. Further, 

 to ensure freedom from damp, the house 

 stands some 18 inches above the ground, 

 with two steps uj) into it. The floor is 

 made of stout board, lined on the under- 

 neath side with thick zinc as a further 

 preventive against damp and draughts. 

 There are double doors, with a porch, so 

 that when the house is entered the outer 

 door is closed before the inner one is opened, 

 thus preventing an inrush of cold air, or 



the escape of any bird which might by 

 chance be out of its cage. There are two 

 windows in the front, one on either side of 

 the door, and a smaller one, high up near 

 to the roof, in each side of the house. This 

 arrangement affords an even distribution 

 of light all through the house without the 

 use of too much glass, which has a tend- 

 ency to cause excessive heat in the summer 

 and does not exclude the cold in the winter. 

 The top panel of these windows works on a 

 hinge, and when opened falls back into 

 closed sides of sheet zinc cut on the slant, 

 with a flange down the front on which the 

 panel rests. This contrivance allows an 

 abundance of air to enter the room through 

 an aperture of about 12 inches at the 

 top. The flange on the zinc sides pre- 

 vents any possibility of draught, even to 

 those birds that are close to the windows. 

 The small side window on the left of the 

 sketch is sho\\n open. The whole of the 

 interior of the house, including the ceiling, 

 is varnished. 



The house has not been selected for 



notice because it is an outhouse, but on 



account of its neatly arranged 



Interior interior, which can be adapted 



Arrange^ ^^ ^ room of a house. In 

 ment of , 



Bird=Room. o*^"" sketch we are only able 

 to show the back and a }3or- 

 tion of each side of the room ; the main 

 windows are, as we have mentioned, on 

 either side of the door in the front, and 

 thus give ample light to the cages both at 

 the back and sides of the room. The cages 

 are all of uniform size, and stand in racks 

 of which the u]:)rights are of wood ; the 

 cross-bars, on which the cages rest, are 

 lengths of small metal gas-piping. By 

 the use of a rack in which to stand the 

 cages, and by the adoption of a uniform 

 size for the cages, every cage can be fitted 

 into its place without the waste of an inch 

 of space. One has only to look at the 

 illustration to note the neat effect this 

 system gives to a room, and how it sets 

 off the birds. These racks will be fully 

 explained later. In the room illustrated 

 there are four tiers of cages ; but the 

 number of cages can be regulated according 



