i6 



MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS. 



men started, be your own Clerk of the Works, be 

 constantly about to see they are carrying out your 

 directions in your way, and think nothing of 

 climbing up ladders to inspect those portions not 

 seen from below. If you fail to do this you must 

 not be surprised at all sorts of drawbacks cropping 

 up. For instance, in both the aviaries I have 

 already described the gutter along the back is far 

 too narrow. In the one aviary there is a risk of 

 smashing the glass roof when the gutter is 

 cleaned, because, between the wall and glass roof, 

 the gutter is not wide enough to allow a man to 

 tread along it easily, and in the other aviary (the 

 last I have described) the gutter was so narrow 

 that in a heavy storm it could not take the water 

 fast enough, with the result it overflowed and came 

 through the back of the aviary, running down the 

 wall and making the tiled sanded floor most un- 

 pleasant. This I have since had remedied. 



When I built the aviary I am now going to tell 

 you of I was wiser, I had bought my experience 

 dearly, so I thought and planned out how I should 

 like it, and then had the builder, Mr. Walker, of 

 Sheffield, over to see me, and had a talk with him 

 and gathered an estimate as to what it would cost. 

 Mr. Walker (who is a wood and iron structure 

 builder on a large scale) was very interested in my 

 building and made some excellent suggestions as 

 to ventilation, etc. The aviary was built at 

 Sheffield in sections and just put together with 

 bolts and screws on arriving here. 



This (No. 3) aviary is a long way my favourite 

 of them all. It was put up in the spring of 1901, 

 and was at first intended for parrakeets. The 

 best site I could find in our old orchard was 32 ft. 

 X 22 ft., the longest side facing south. It is a 

 pretty situation, with a tiny artificial streamlet 

 running in front where many water-lilies and iris 

 grow. Overshadowing the eastern end is a 

 picturesque old spreading apple-tree with a seat 

 running round its trunk. 



From my width of 22 ft. I cut off 6 ft. (on the 

 north side) to form a passage running along the 

 whole length of the aviary, and from each end of 

 this I took off 6J ft. That at the eastern end 

 forms the entrance to the aviary and is fitted with 

 shelves, etc., into a little store-room, while that at 

 the western end forms a small extra division for 

 birds. The centre part of the passage contains 

 the stove for heating the place, and is invaluable 

 in many ways that I will mention later. 



This left m.e with a piece of ground 32 ft. x 

 16 ft., and this I divided into 5 divisions, each 16 

 ft. long by 6J ft. wide (the centre one is just a trifle 

 smaller than the others). Each of these compart- 

 ments forms a separate aviary to itself, and is 

 ■divided into three parts, namely, a shelter, glass- 



roofed portion and open flight. The three centre 

 compartments are entered by separate doors from 

 the passage, the two outer ones by doors from the 

 seed room, and from the little extra aviary at the 

 western end. 



In this way there is no fear of the birds 

 escaping, and also one need not pass through all 

 the aviaries to reach any special one, each having 

 its own entrance. This is especially useful in the 

 case of nesting birds, which must not be disturbed. 



The little seed, or store, room is fitted with 

 shelves for numerous articles, and a curtain of 

 washing prjnt hangs in front. There is also kept 

 here a galvanised seed bin with five divisions. The 

 centre one is very much the largest and holds two 

 bushels of dove mixture (wheat, dari, hemp, and 

 a little rice), the other divisions hold a bushel each 

 of Italian millet, Indian millet, hemp, and canary. 

 The brushes, water-can for filling the baths, etc., 

 dust-pan and other articles for daily use are hung 

 on nails on the walls, and behind the door is a 

 rail for the aviary cloths, where they hang to dry. 

 There is a window at one end, and directly under- 

 neath it a good-sized wooden shelf that makes a 

 capital table, and screwed to one end of this is an 

 "Enterprise" cutter (Spratt's) that has been used 

 for years, and is as good as when I bought it. I 

 find it most useful for grinding biscuit and egg- 

 shells, and the size of the pieces may be regulated 

 by means of a screw. There is nothing about it 

 to get out of order, and where there is much 

 grinding of food stuffs to do a machine of this kind 

 is almost a necessity. 



The passage is lighted by two windows, and 

 between these stands the stove, the pipe of which 

 goes through the roof. The stove is an ordinary 

 closed one and has a little door at the bottom for 

 raking out the ashes and another small door in the 

 front top for poking the fire. But I find if the 

 fire is poked through this door there is danger of 

 cracking the fire brick lining (as the poker is 

 obliged to be held slanting), so I had a lift-up door 

 made in the flat top of the stove, and through this 

 the fire can be stoked or poked in safety. 



I burn the same coke in this as in my other 

 aviary, and now and then in a close stove like this 

 one the coke is given to "cake" and stick in a 

 hard mass to the fire brick inside. If this were 

 not regularly chipped off it would in time block up 

 the interior of the stove, but it needs doing care- 

 fully so that the fire brick is not injured with the 

 poker, and cracked or chipped. 



I find this stove very useful in times of sickness, 

 for a bird may be placed near it at night and be 

 kept warm till morning, or sometimes in a case of 

 collapse hot pieces of flannel are needed, and 

 while the little invalid is wrapped in one piece 



