10 MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS. 
floor was cemented and tiled over, and, to keep the 
place dryer, a glass pointed roof was substituted 
for the wire netting one. This made the aviary 
look much nicer; of course the glass roof had to 
be lined (a few inches from the glass) with a kind 
of very strong muslin, known at the drapers as 
“‘strainering.’? This was a precaution to prevent 
the doves dashing against the glass if they flew 
upwards. 
No. 2 aviary was built a little later than the first 
one. It has no flight, but is just a house built 
against a high brick wall and facing due south. 
It is lower down the garden and stands in a sunny 
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1 
old-fashioned orchard, and the outer part of the 
aviary front, that is not wire, is covered with 
climbing roses and ivy. 
This aviary is composed of two thicknesses of 
wood with felt between, and the span roof is of 
corrugated iron lined with wood. The whole of 
the inside is varnished, except the brick wall that 
forms the back, which is white-washed. The 
dimensions are 16 ft. long by 93 ft. wide and 133 
ft. high at the highest point in the roof. The front 
of the aviary is wired to within 2 ft. of the ground, 
and along the whole length ten glass-panelled 
moveable shutters are fastened by means of bars 
and screws. In summer weather the shutters are 
removed altogether, but in very cold weather they 
are all kept up (forming a large window 16 ft. long 
by 53 ft. high). These shutters can be fixed or 
removed in a few minutes, and are all independent 
of each other, so that one or more can be taken 
down without interfering with the rest. » 
The inside is divided by a wire partition (boarded 
up a short distance from the floor) into two parts, 
one being rather larger than the other. In the 
end of each is a wire-covered opening window, 
and in the roof of each a glass skylight, also made 
to open and covered with wire. The skylights are 
regulated with cords and pulleys, and are left open 
slightly at night all through the year. Each of 
the two portions of the aviary is entered at each 
end by a porch and double doors, so that there is 
no fear of the birds escaping on anyone going 
inside. I consider a double door is a necessity to 
every aviary, for without it accidents are bound to 
happen. A shelf, for seed tins, etc., is in each 
porch, over the door, and this is handy, as it forms 
a little store place for food without having to keep 
it away from the aviary. In the centre of each 
floor is a small cement basin with continual 
running water, which can be turned up or down 
at will. 
This aviary is heated with hot water pipes. The 
feed-tank (with a cover on) is at one end of the 
pipes, and now and then wants replenishing with 
water. There is an escape pipe from it in case 
the water should boil over. This pipe is fixed in 
the tank and through the aviary end, so that the 
water can never rise above a certain height, the 
escape pipe drawing off all the overflow into a 
cement gutter that runs round three sides of the 
aviary. This gutter has two grates and a pipe 
leading into a dumb well, and the overflow from 
the fountain (in the centre of each half of the 
aviary) runs into the dumb well also. 
dumb well is simply a deep hole dug into the 
ground, the earth being cleared out and its place 
filled with half-bricks and rubble, put in anyhow, 
so that there are spaces left amongst them for the 
water to run through and to drain away. Of 
course, the level of your rubble must be below the 
level of the waste pipe flowing into it. 
It is a good plan to cover the top of your dumb 
well with a large flag-stone just a few inches 
below the ground, then put earth or grass on the 
top of this so as to make it look like its surround- 
ings. The flag-stone has several advantages. In 
the first place it keeps the ground from sinking in 
over the well, then, again, it prevents dirt silting 
into the well, and helping to choke it, and also 
should anything ever happen to interfere with the 
