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The Hon. Mrs. Bampfylde,



MY EXPERIENCES IN AVICULTURE.


By the Hon. Mrs. Bampfylde.


These experiences date from about two years ago, when

I first seriously started keeping foreign birds in aviaries, and

although I know there are many members of our Society far

better qualified than I am to write on this subject, I will en¬

deavour to give my experiences, such as they are.


At the present time I have two aviaries—one about 8ft. by

4ft. by 8ft. high ; the other 10ft. by 5ft. by 10ft. high, the latter

having an outer flight about the same dimensions, thickly planted

with box, privet and other trees and shrubs and laid with turf.

Both aviaries are built 011 to a south wall; the inner portions

having cemented floors and several wooden tubs with evergreen

shrubs planted in them for cover. These are constantly removed

and replaced by new ones. There is a shallow cemented basin

in the middle of each floor and also in the outer flight, which I

find most valuable for bathing and drinking purposes. The

water in these basins is changed twice a day.


Each aviary is covered in front with movable glass shut¬

ters, and is heated with hot water pipes. A small boiler, in which

we burn cinders only, heats both aviaries and keeps them to a

very even temperature of about 55 degrees Fahrenheit. I find

that here, on the borders of wild and wet Exmoor, 700 feet

above the sea, a certain amount of artificial heating is absolutely

necessary during the winter. I have found that the dry cold

affects my birds less than the constant wet weather, of which we

get more than our share during the winter and spring. At the

same time the intense heat of last summer was far more deadly

to the birds than almost any winter.


There is a system of electric lighting in both aviaries to

supplement the daylight in the winter mornings and evenings.

This plan has been most successful, as it undoubtedly enables

many of the smaller and more delicate birds to keep from hunger

and thirst and so from weakness and eventual death. The winter

before this there was no electric lighting, though all the other

arrangements were exactly the same as they are now, and the

loss then was infinitely greater than that of this winter, and this

I attribute entirely to the want of light.



