34 Practicai, Bird-Keeping. 



The wire flight should, if possible, cover a larger area than 

 the shed. A good rule being to make the area of the former 

 double that of the latter. 



It is advisable that the flight should be less in height than 

 the shed, and the top of the opening from one to the other 

 should be as high up, or nearly so, as the top of the flight, most 

 birds, especially when new arrivals, objecting to dipping down 

 into a low opening. 



The covered portion of an aviary should be substantially 

 built, preferably of brick, or double tongued boarding, and care 

 must be taken that no holes or chinks are left that would cause 

 a draught. 



The roof should consist of tongued boarding, felt, and 

 tiles or corrugated iron, and should contain a large skylight made 

 to open for ventilation in hot weather, a wire-netting guard being 

 fixed on the inside. 



A door or large window should be fixed to tlie opening 

 into the flight, so that the birds can be shut in altogether if 

 necessary. All windows should have a wire-netting guard on 

 the inside. 



The floor of the shed should be of concrete, that of the 

 flight mostly of turf with a gravel path. 



Such is, in outline, the plan of a very simple and useful 

 type of aviary, but this can be improved upon considerably if 

 thought desirable. For instance, in a range of such aviaries a 

 service passage running along the back with doors into each 

 compartment is most useful as it allows the attendant to visit 

 any one compartment without the necessity of going through 

 several other compartments to get to it. 



It is most important that the aviary be made secure 

 against the ingress of such vermin as rats, stoats or weasels. 

 The inside or shed portion, if provided with a concrete floor will 

 be practically safe, but the outer flight, which has a natural floor 

 of earth is the most likely place for the enemy to attack. A 

 simple and eff"ective method of making this secure is as follows. 

 A trench should be dug round the flight, eighteen inches wide 

 and eighteen inches deep, and the wire netting, which by the way 

 should be of five-eight or even half-inch mesh, should be carried 



