A Novice's Aviaries.



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and many of the excursionists were buying them as souvenirs of

their visit, at prices ranging from twopence apiece. “ Are you

going to eat them ? ” I said to one, who had bought half-a-dozen

or so. “ No thank you,” said he, “ I’m much too dainty.” He

■ told me however that someone had just ordered several dozen

eggs to lay by for the winter. I cannot speak of the flavour of

these eggs from personal experience, but I see no reason why

they should not be as palatable as Penguin’s eggs from the Cape,

'which have lately been on sale in London as table delicacies.

The demand however for Guillemots eggs in one way or another

seems equal to the supply, and judging from the countless

swarms of birds haunting the cliffs, there is little danger, so long

as a close season is observed, of the numbers of the Guillemots

jbeing seriously diminished.


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A NOVICE’S AVIARIES.


By W. R. Temple.


Among the many interesting and instructive articles in the

\\Avicultural Magazine I have never seen a description of the first

1 attempt in avicultural management by a novice : and as I have

been asked by several members of the Society to write an account

of my experience, I propose, with great diffidence, to write of the

doings in my aviaries this season. Perhaps it would be best if I

briefly describe the aviaries first. There are four of them alto¬

gether. Three, which I will call A B and C. consist of indoor

flights about 12 ft. square and 9 ft. high, which open into outdoor

flights of rather larger dimensions. The indoor parts are heated

{ with hot-water pipes, and the flights are laid down with turf and

planted thickly with shrubs.


These three aviaries are at the bottom of the flower garden,

built against a high wall facing South. The fourth avian’- D is

in the kitchen garden. It has an outer flight 36 ft. long, 24 ft.

wide and 12 ft. high. This flight opens at one end into a glass

shelter about 12 ft. long, 9 ft. wide and 8 ft. high, which again

i opens into a similar glass covered shelter heated with liot-water

1 pipes. The heating apparatus is usually set going about the end

of September and kept on till the end of March, but plenty of

! ventilation is given.


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