12 Practicai, Bird-Keeping. 



should be aimed at iu designing a sunniier aviary for small insec- 

 tivorous birds. 



In the first place, we must have shelter from cold winds, 

 which is best secured by a palisading of tongued and grooved 

 boards, at least seven feet high, extending the entire length of 

 the aviary on the North and East sides. Our aviary, however, 

 must not be built against a wall, or a hedge, or under trees, any 

 one of which conditions will render it absolutely impossible to pre- 

 veut the ingress of mice, rats and weasels. My original aviaries 

 are in a small walled garden and, I regret to say, I followed the 

 conventional design and built against the walls, the inevitable 

 consequence being that I have been continually pestered with 

 vermin and I look upon these aviaries now as chiefly useful for 

 winter housing. My breeding aviary has now been up almost 

 two years ; it has been absolutely free from vermin and has given 

 better results in every way. The space between the palisading 

 and the aviary I use partly for a service passage but chiefly for 

 observation purposes ; I have planted it with fruit trees, which 

 bear well, and had a pair of Redstarts in it last year, which 

 flourished exceedingly and almost fed themselves on insects. 

 If an aviary is to be built in a walled garden, there should be a 

 space at least 6ft. wide between its sides and the walls of the 

 garden. 



The South and West sides of the above-mentioned aviary 

 are boarded to the height of 3ft. ; where the boards enter the 

 ground they are protected by a length of small meshed wire 

 netting 2ft. wide, half of which width is nailed to the skirting 

 and half is buried in a horizontal position under the soil. 



The size of netting most suitable for a Warbler's aviary is 

 five-eights of an inch: if three-quarters of an inch mesh is used. 

 Wrens and Blue-Tits will find their way in and carry ofif a 

 quantity of live insect food. 



The size and shape of a breeding aviary are, I think, 

 immaterial ; if it is mouse-proof, sunny, sheltered and not over- 

 crowded one may reasonably hope for good results, but it is 

 really waste of time trying to work with a mouse-ridden aviary 

 because any breeding results will be merely flukes. 



