wire it in, and turn down sucli birds as Egrets, Spoonbills,

OySter-Catchers and various things that love to' stand on one

leg, knee deep, near the margin, uttering whistlings and pipings

and croalcings of different tones and degrees. Such sounds

recall to one days and moments passed in the haunts of birds

of marshland and sea and loch, than which, to bird-lovers, there

are no surroundings more full of fascination and interest.


Almost, if not quite, the most delightful spot in our

Zoological Gardens is the Eastern Aviaiy, where the pink and

white Flamingos, standing on coral stilts, “ gaggle ” and croak ;

where the scarlet Ibis dazzles one’s eye, where the Egrets and

the Spoonbills, the smaller gulls and various waders congregate

together in picturesque and varied groups ; flying, at times, with

free pinions, and thereby shewing themselves to advantage, as

many another of their species in captivity is unable to do.



AN ACCOUNT OF MY BIRD ROOM.


By Margaret Wirriams.


My bird-room is still in its infancy, having been but recently

devoted to its present purpose. Only last year it was a laundry,

andwdien I took it in hand it bore very visible signs of the purpose

to which it had been put. It is the front-room—the drawing¬

room—of an empty four-roomed cottage attached to a coach¬

house and stable combined. The latter is not used as a stable,

but elevated into a rabbitry, and the whole cottage will soon, I

hope, be an interesting Zoo in miniature. The birds’ parlour is a

room about 22 feet by 14 feet, with a double window looking

nearly due south, which gets every ray of sun. You enter by

the door, as is customary, and in the opposite wall are two more

doors, opening on shallow cupboards. The shelves in these con¬

tain the birds’ larder, but as they are damp, and accessible to

mice, being in the outside wall, they are, vulgarly speaking, no

great shakes. However, by keeping all the seed, etc., in airtight

tins—Eipton’s tea tins, multitudes of which were left in the

house by our predecessor—I manage to cheat the mice, who can¬

not get out into the room, the cupboard doors being well fitted.


The room is decorated with ordinai'y whitewash, mixed

with a good deal of yellow ochre and much size, and the walls

look bright and clean and do not rub off. The door and cup¬

boards and all woodwork are painted grey. Two aviaries, each

about four feet wide and deep are built against the back and door

side walls, and run from the ceiling down to within three feet of

the ground. They were built up upon flap ironing boards, which



