My New Aviaries. 309



this tragedy. I felt sure of the murderer : a vile, slinking black

cat from the village.


At eight o’clock the same evening, at the other end of the

hedge I found the male White-throat paying marked attentions to

his lady, so hope that all may still be well with them.


An hour later, a shot rang out and a black murderer met his

just sentence, and was given a felon’s burial by moonlight, at the

spot where a Lesser White-throat’s nest had been.



MY NEW AVIARIES.


By Maurice Amsler.


The Editor having asked me for copy for the July number of

the Avicultural Magazine, I propose keeping an old promise made to

him of a short account of my new aviaries.


Last year, when I moved into a new house, all my old home¬

made aviaries had to be pulled down, and almost the whole of them,

by dint of much thought and engineering, have been requisitioned

in the construction of the new flights.


I do not think that anything in the present range of aviaries

is either particularly new or startlingly striking, but I had neverthe¬

less profited by experience in the building of the old flights, and

this experience served me in good stead, and may prevent other

beginners from making many mistakes in the construction of their

bird-houses.


Whereas the old aviaries were gradually built with my own

hands (there were seven including a bird-room), the new ones had to

be erected in three months, and I was obliged to employ a couple of

labourers for the heavy work, and also a carpenter for part of the

time, acting myself chiefly as foreman and clerk of the works.


Quite at the beginning I was able to obtain a sound wooden

shed, built of 4in. by 3in. quartering and feather-edge boards ; it had

a span roof which was in bad repair, and was 20ft. long by 18ft. broad

and 15ft. with ridge. The ground at my disposal was a strip 54ft.

long and 20ft. broad, and by planting the shed in the middle of this I

was able to wire in two flights 18ft. by 20ft. at each side of the shed.



