on the Winter Treatment of Foreign Birds. 313


I transferred the birds—a list of which I will give later on—

from my London aviaries to the aviary, (a description of which

follows), about the middle of April, 1914.


The aviary in question was constructed for me locally by the

village carpenter and was a very rough affair, yet, in so far as the

health of the inmates was concerned, it answered admirably. The

flight measured 20ft. by 20ft. by 7ft. and the shelter 8ft. by 4ft. by

7ft. The shelter, a roofed hut, as it were, has three entrances, one

at each end, and one on one side. One end entrance has a door,

with a square of glass in the upper part to let in the light. Opposite

this, at the other end, there is a small wooden flap, which is kept

closed during the winter, but open in spring and summer. Another

entrance, on one side, is entirely open in summer, but in winter is

covered, save for about a foot at the bottom, with tarred felt.

There is no floor to the shelter and no heat whatever is supplied at

any season.


In order to encourage the birds to use the shelter, two dishes

of food—one containing seed and the other soft-food—are always

placed inside the open side entrance just referred to. In this shelter

I arrange each spring quantities of brushwood, in which I fix huge

bundles of heather, bracken, ivy, etc. Another heap of brushwood

furnished as before is placed just outside the shelter by the wooden

flap and is sheltered from the rain partly by overhanging eaves, but

the wire-netting' above it is also covered over with tarpaulin wired to

the top.


It is always most important to provide a perfectly dry place

of some kind or other where the birds can and will go to roost. I

am satisfied that it is the wetting they get at night through roosting

out in the open that does all the damage. The shelter itself is not

constructed with the idea of warmth so much as with the idea of

keeping out wind and rain, especially the latter. Contrary to Dr.

Lovell-Keays’ experience, practically every bird in the aviary uses

this shelter to roost in. Some only use it in rough weather, others

use it habitually and even nest therein. At the present moment

for instance (June) a pair of Virginian cardinals are incubating their

second clutch in the shelter, and a pair of bullfinches have also

nested and laid there, though incubation has not yet actually been



