Practical Bird-Keeping .— Correspondence. 251


PRACTICAL BIRD-KEEPING.—CORRESPONDENCE.



WINTERING BIRDS IN OUTDOOR AVIARIES.


Mr. H. L. Sich asks us to say that the birds mentioned in his letter

in the last number of our magazine (p. 224) weie not turned out of doors for

the first time that year, nor were they newly-imported birds. They were

taken from one aviary, where they had spent the summer, and turned out

into the one which he described in his letter, and which had been especially

built for a winter aviary.


Sir, —Your readers may be interested in my experiences of an out¬

door aviary. I have it in a corner with a very high wall on the north and

west side, and tall, thick shrubs growing against the aviary on the east.

There is a lean-to shelter against the north wall, in which there are plenty

of perches high up, also cocoa-nuts and boxes of all sizes and descriptions

hung on the walls in which hay is put, and the birds sleep or nest in them

as the}- please. I11 this bedroom I have a stove with patent fuel burning all


night in winter and on the coldest

days; it has a pipe through the

wall into the open to let out any

o, bad gas fumes. The door, which

r is against the west wall, has the top

on hinges and can be dropped

according to the weather, but there

is always about twelve inches that

cannot be closed; in summer of

course the door is kept wide open.


The outside flight is a good

size, and in it there are two Retin-

ospora shrubs growing, and tall

tree trunks with their branches

left on but cut short, and to the

top of these are fastened fresh

^ branches of Box, in which the birds

^ love to hop about, and the Weaver

? weaves his wonderful work. There

are also perches along and across

the top and a variety of boxes for

the birds to build in hung about;

ivy grows up the west wall, a hunt¬

ing-ground for insects. The seed-

boxes hang inside the shelter and a

saucer of water also, but the larger

saucers for their baths are outside.



12ft. 6in. wide.



12ft. 6in. wide.



