268 HOW CONSTRUCTED 



must be a good provision for drainage, arid at the openings 

 for this purpose gratings should be placed, to exclude the 

 before -mentioned foes of the sweet songsters, which, as in 

 the case of William Kidd of Hammersmith, have been known 

 completely to depopulate an aviary. 



It is best to have this structure accessible from the house 

 at all times without exposure to the weather; it should have 

 creepers and evergreen shrubs about it, and be in a garden, 

 or some spot removed from noise and bustle, so that the 

 wild birds may build and sing around it, and hold com- 

 munion with their friends within : if it can be managed 

 for a fountain to play in the middle, in the basin of which 

 the inmates can drink and bathe, so much the better ; if 

 not, reservoirs of water, kept constantly fresh and pure, 

 must be placed at convenient places, with seed vessels and 

 other receptacles for food, but not too near together. Kock- 

 work, with creepers about it, will add much to the beauty 

 of the effect ; and pots with evergreens, and branches 

 trained up the walls, and the corners and ends, behind 

 which the nesting boxes may be placed, will greatly add to 

 the pleasure and comfort of the little builders, for whom 

 there should be provided a supply of clean wool, moss, 

 and other soil materials for building. Instead of nesting 

 boxes, some use little wicker baskets, about as large as 

 the handle of a sword stick, and these answer the purpose 

 admirably. 



In a large aviary of this description many birds of 

 different species will live in peace and amity, and delight 

 those who provide for their safety and sustenance with 

 their music, and the grace and beauty of their forms and 

 movements. 



An aviary is sometimes made on a more economic plan 

 of a spare room, looking over a garden, or adjoining a 

 breakfast-room, or study, with which it communicates by 

 a glass door, or one fitted with wire-netting in the place of 

 glass, so that the inmates can be watched in their interest- 

 ing sports and occupations. A friend of ours has about 

 forty Canaries in such an improvised habitation, and very 

 happy they seem to be, eating and drinking, and sporting 

 about, some seated on the perches, which are placed at 



