THE



Hvicultpral jfflbaoa3tne t


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



NO. 4.



FEBRUARY, 1895.



OUR BIRD-ROOMS AND AVIARIES-


IV.


MY OUTDOOR AVIARIES.


By James Cooper.


As I have been very successful in my small way with my two outdoor

aviaries, I think perhaps the readers of the “ Avicultural Magazine” may

like to have a few particulars as to how I have proceeded. I have been a

bird lover for very many years, and have a fair collection of eggs (among

which is a clutch with nest of what my brother considers to be the Brown¬

eyed Flycatcher, but I myself think it more likely to be one of the

■Warblers, and at any rate it is as yet unauthenticated). I also have a fair

collection of stuffed subjects.


I often thought of trying an outdoor aviarv, and about five years

ago set to work to make one, with the aid of our village joiner. It

consists of a covered house, and an outside flight which is also partly-

covered. The house is 12 feet wide by 6 feet deep, and the flight 12 feet

wide and 12 feet deep. The house and flight are both 6 feet in height

to the eaves, and 11 feet to the apex of the roof. The aviary faces east,

and is boarded up on the north side.


The house is made of wood ; a framework was first made of red w'ood

{3 inches by 3 inches) covered outside with i-inch floor boards both top and

sides, and the inside lined with J-inch match-boarding. The roof is covered

with corrugated iron, beneath which is thick felting. The flight consists of

iron hurdles made by Messrs. Boulton and Paul, of Norwich, and cost very

little. I got the blacksmith to make an iron frame to rake with the roof of

the house, which is a gable, not a “ lean-to,” and the whole w ? as covered with

-|-inch galvanized wire netting. Part of the flight is also roofed in with corru¬

gated iron, and I consider this a great advantage, as many birds prefer being

outside rather than in the house. The hurdles are fastened into stones, and

as they are about 15 inches above the ordinary ground level, I built a brick

wall in cement all round up to the bottom of the hurdles, which prevents

rats from getting in. The house floor I laid with bricks and jointed in with

cement. A pari of the house is wired off. and there I keep the seed and

other food, and it also forms a lobby so that there is no fear of a bird

escaping. I put in a lot of rotten logs, and have now' made a shelf round

the wall, about 5 feet from the ground, so that no mice can reach it, and on

this I have placed hollowed logs, oyster barrels, and cocoa-nuts husks. I

especially recommend oyster barrels as nesting places, for in them I have

bred numbers of Cockatiels and also Rosellas. The flight I have decorated

with gorse bushes and thorn branches nailed up against the wooden walls.

I also have heaps of gorse ill the corners of both flight and house. The

entrance to the house is a large opening in front 5 feet by 2 feet, and I also

have a window in front, and one at the side, covered with netting.


I have a large artificial tree in the middle of the flight, but I find this

can be overdone, as it takes away' from the space which is required for

flight, and, in fact, I told my man when building up the tree that he

evidently' thought he could beat nature at tree building, he found so many

places for branches.



