APPENDIX IIL. 
AVIARIES FOR DUCKS. 
An aviary for ducks should be constructed solely of iron- 
work and wire-netting (one inch mesh if teal are to be con- 
fined in it, to exclude rats) and the foundations should be 
made impregnable to vermin. At least half should be shaded 
with thatching, or better still, climbing plants. The floor 
space should be more than half water, and the land should 
take the form of an island in the middle; this should have 
sloping edges, set with stone to keep the birds from dabbling 
them away. The water need not be more than two feet deep, 
and had better be less in places; some arrangement should 
be made to draw it off whenever it begins to get foul. As for 
the height, eight feet will be enough, though a greater height 
will be all the better; but the extent in length and breadth 
must be considerable, at least thirty feet each way, for ducks 
are heavy awkward birds on the wing (except whistling teal) 
as far as conducting evolutions in a confined space goes. It 
is in order to ease their feet when alighting that I recom- 
mend the arrangement of the aviary with land in the centre and 
water next the netting. A dead tree or a straggling living one 
should be introduced for the benefit of the perching ducks, and 
nest boxes can be put in to give a chance to any birds that 
are disposed to breed. The idea of this aviary is taken, with 
modifications, from the fine duck house in the Calcutta Zoo, 
undoubtedly far the most popular and successful of all the bird 
houses there, and though such a building is naturally expensive 
to erect, it would prove a continual source of pleasure to the 
frequenters of the place when established in any public garden. 
A tealery for keeping birds for food can be made on much 
the same lines, but less expensively, as there is no reason to 
show the birds, and so a wooden or other building will do as 
well as an aviary. Moreover, so much water and space gene- 
rally is not needed, as the birds’ wings can be cut to keep them 
from fluttering against the netting, since they are not required 
to take exercise or show themselves off on the wing. It should 
