48 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



meet, lace them to straining wire, stretched between the posts. Peg 

 down the lower width of netting along the ground with sticks with 

 forked tops, or bent iron wire, and lace the top edge of the upper 

 netting to the rails above it. 



(H) Staple straining wire 4 ft. above ground (giving it a turn 

 round each post in passing) all round the inside of the aviary and 

 across the divisions on the reverse side of the poles to the netting 

 already fixed. The door spaces are not to be crossed by this wire. 



(K) Fix the 4-ft. wide 3-in. mesh netting, with its top edge laced 

 to the straining wire just referred to, and its lower edge pegged along 

 the ground ; staple it to the posts here and there. 



Fill up the space between this 4-ft. high netting and that on the 

 reverse side of the posts, with small fir boughs, &c., as previously de- 

 scribed (figs. 4 and 5). 



You may now arrange the hiding places in the corners of the pens 

 (fig. 5), four to each, and the roosting perches (fig. 6). 



The doors (D) will have to be covered separately with some of the 

 6-ft. netting (F), and a piece of the tarred felt, 2 ft. 6 in. square, nailed 

 to the low^er half of each door, to cover them up to the same height 

 as the shelter fence that surrounds the aviary. 



The work here described seems elaborate on paper, but is simple 

 enough if the materials are ordered and placed on the ground before- 

 hand. A joiner and two handy men can erect the entire framework 

 in three or four days, and within less than a fortnight should have the 

 aviary ready for its occupants. 



t. d. 



It will be seen the total cost of this aviary, supplying 



you with 600 eggs, is . - . . 17 14 2 



The keeper who attends to it cannot well be charged 

 in the expenses, as he would naturally be perma- 

 nently employed on any estate where an aviary 

 would be required, whether the latter was utilised 

 or not. 



The food eaten by the thirty-six penned pheasants 



during six months would not exceed . . 400 



Total cost of 600 eggs ilae first year of the aviary 21 14 2 



Or about 3Z. less than you would have to pay a dealer for a similar 

 number of eggs of an inferior quality to those produced at home. 



