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The inner aviary or house is built in one course of bricks only, as

the situation is well protected. It is 6 feet wide and io feet long, io feet

high at the eaves, and 12 feet at the ridge ; the walls are plastered, and well

finished inside, the floor is tiled, and the walls round the sides are cemented

with Portland cement to the height of 6 inches from the floor, to keep out

the mice. There is an inner door made of light wood covered with wire

netting, with a lobby large enough to stand in while the outer door is being

shut and before the inner door is opened. It is lighted by a large sky-light

in the roof, (which, by the way, is slated,) and by a large folding window

•opening into the outer aviary, which is open all the summer. There is also a

hole, a foot square, in the wall, on the floor, underneath the window, which

is the only means of ingress and egress during the winter months, when

the window is shut. All the seed hoppers (which are home made and self-

supplying) are kept in the house, and hung on the smooth plaster walls in

such a manner that the mice cannot reach them; there is also a suspended

wire basket to contain the dish of soft food, which is brought indoors on

frosty' day’s The floor is covered with fine sea sand mixed with grit, and is

swept over once a week, and all seed-husks and droppings removed. The

windows and skylights are covered with wire netting.


The outer aviary’ is constructed of standards and lengths of

3jpn. wood, on which is stretched \ inch wire netting ; it is 10 feet high,

the height of the surrounding walls, and comes up to the eaves of

the house. The front of the aviary is close boarded to the height of 4

feet from the ground, the remaining 6 feet being open wire; the two far cor¬

ners are each covered in by sheets of galvanized iron. 6 feet square, arranged

on supports, and the corners thus protected are filled with spruce fir

branches to form a dense cover.


The walls are now being rapidly' covered with ivy. and the few places

which would otherwise be bare are covered by heather nailed against the

wall, nestling amongst which I have placed cocoa-nut husks for the small

finches to roost in.


In several places round the sides I have planted hollies and box trees,

and running the whole length of the front of the aviary, and just behind

the boarding, is a hedge of Japan cypress. The centre is laid down with

grass which is dug up regularly’ in Spring and fresh seed sown.


The drinking fountain consists of a zinc dish about 18 inches square

and 3 inches deep, sunk in the ground level with the grass, but surrounded

by’ terra cotta tiles laid flat to prevent the soil getting into the water: the

fountain is placed about 10 feet from the door, leading from which to it is a

gravel path, bordered by box edging, and regularly’ renewed and raked

over. The soft-food hopper is hung just at the end of this path, but not

over the water, so that in wet weather it is not necessary’ to go on to the

damp grass to replenish the water or give fresh food. The food hopper is

an idea of my’ own, carried out by r a local joiner, and is perhaps worthy of a

description itself, but as ray article is already’ becoming too long I must

leave it until some other time, suffice it now to say that it protects the food

from sun and rain prevents the birds from wasting it by throwing it out,

and also prevents the unsightly mess usually made by’ insectivorous birds

round their feeding dish. My arrangement causes the droppings to fall on

to a board, and this is cleaned every day’.


The perches in both the inner and outer aviaries are, as far as possible,

natural boughs of trees, which I always prefer to the wretched straight pole

perches.


This aviary’, which I have attempted to describe, generally has about

50 inmates. My Parrakeets I now keep in another and smaller aviary, which

I may, perhaps, describe some other time.


In my’ large aviary I have had varying luck with mv birds. Some

years I am very’ successful in rearing, but other years I despair of ever rear¬

ing any more birds. The cause of disaster in breeding is almost always

keeping birds of varying dispositions and habits in the same aviary’, but of



