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possibility of regulating the heat, which can be so easily done

with oil or gas. However, I still use an oil lamp when only a

slight warmth is required. The stove, flue pipe, and opening of

the chimney are made quite safe by being, as it were, caged in a

square cover made of batten and netting, which is very light

and is moved aside when the stove is stoked.


The floor of the room is kept covered with fine red saw¬

dust, which looks exactly like sand, and is swept up and sifted

whenever it begins to look dirty; the real sand is kept in a

shallow box from which the birds can take all they want. The

water, seed, and food for the insectivorous birds are at present

kept on the floor, well out in the middle and away from perches ;

should the mice find their way in at any time, I must rig up a

swinging tray from the ceiling. In the corners of the room I

have masses of branches, forming a dense cover for shy birds,

and bamboos here and there between the sides of the fixed

aviaries and the walls. I mean to have some box shrubs in pots

when I can get them, and put them about in the middle, unoc¬

cupied, part of the room.


Outside the door I have a second door of batten and wire,

opening in the reverse direction, so that in hot weather the

wooden door can stand wide open, and the air find a free passage

through the wire one.


At this season of the year the windows do not require to

be opened, and they are screened by the wire end of the small

birds’ avairy. Next summer I mean to build an outside annex

to the bird-room. Its windows look on a gravel path and bit of

lawn which I shall have enclosed and wired over ; and let the

birds go in and out of the window. Some rose-bushes growing

outside will doubtless suffer, but I rather fancy the birds will

enjoy it!


Having described the bird-room, I must give a few words

to the occupants. I would rather watch a few birds, comfortable,

at their ease, and not crowded together, than have the pleasure

of possessing a great many: so my bird-room is not very

full.


Kach aviary contains a pair of Cardinals, in one case red,

in the other, green. The latter are very tame, and I hope will

breed next season. In the small birds’ aviary are Cutthroats,

Zebras, Diamond Finches and Saffron Finches ; one pair of each ;

while a few larger birds—-Weavers, Troupials, &c., occupy the

rest of the room at their pleasure. The small birds do not seem

to mind the presence of their large relations in the least, and the



