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lining of canvas muslin (known as strainering). This is a great

protection to any bird that might fly suddenly upwards, and other¬

wise injure its head. Cats and rats are great enemies to the

inmates of our aviaries. To keep the former from frightening

the birds at night, I have either a curtain of sheeting (run on a

wire with rings, and fastened tight with hooks and rings) or else

blinds that are let down at night. I think the former plan is

the best, as the curtain is simple to make and can be tied back

during the day. Besides keeping the birds quiet this serves as a

protection from the cold in the winter months. Before I adopted

this plan the cats used to frighten the Doves very much, though

they could not actually get at them to do any harm. The birds

would dash wildly about, and cut their wings against the wire

netting.


Rats are more difficult to deal with. It seems impossible

to be really free from them, as they will always find out where

there is grain. The aviary floor must have a good layer of

cement, or if this cannot be done it must at least be underlaid (if

the floor is of grass, wood, or earth) with fine wire netting.

Tiles are not as good as cement for a floor, as the rats can

burrow under a tile and cause it to sink. A rat can easily kill a

Pigeon, but oftener it seems to maim them. I have at present a

hen Bleeding-heart Dove that belongs to a friend. This bird at

some time or other has been nearly scalped by a rat (I believe

I was told the cock was killed outright), and the head has been

partly bare of feathers ever since. I remember when a child we

kept some Nun Pigeons. In those days my only idea of a bird was

how to love and pet it, not to study how to keep it properly. One

morning we found our poor Pigeons had had their claws bitten

clean off by a rat, but it had not injured them in any other way.

A few days later, to our great joy, the culprit was found fast in

the wire netting roof. It had got its head through and could not

get it out again. You may be sure it never had the chance of

harming our pets a second time. When you think what fearful

agonies the poor imprisoned birds must go through, with the

knowledge of an enemy from whom they cannot escape, surely

if alone on that account it is only right to thoroughly protect an

aviary from such vermin.


Next month I hope to describe shortly my different Doves.

The following are the kinds I have kept so far. Of the small

varieties Passerine, Picui, Masked, Diamond and Tambourine

Doves. The larger birds are the Triangular Spotted Pigeon,

Necklace, White-winged, Senegal, Australian Crested, Bleeding-



