ORDINARY LIFE. 23 
and my Black-bearded doves, especially the hen, 
delights in red currants, plucked off the stem. I 
have noticed that when she picked one up she did 
not swallow it at once, but jerked it with her beak 
against the ground first, like a thrush with a 
worm. 
It is rather a disputed question where the seed 
pots should be put in an aviary. If on the floor 
there is a fear of mice, or, worse still, rats. I 
remember, years ago, when as children we kept 
four Nun pigeons, how a rat got into the aviary, 
and gnawed the poor birds’ toe nails off, but, 
strangely enough, did not kill them. Finally this 
rat came to a curious end. We found it fast in 
the wire netting (which was larger than 4 inch 
mesh). By some means it had got its head 
through and so entangled itself it could not get 
CRESTED SENEGAL AND WHITE-WINGED Doves. 
free again. Rats can even get through a tiled 
floor, burrowing under a tile and causing it to 
sink. Once I heard of a rat doing this in a 
dwelling-house, and making a sort of nest in the 
cavity, lining it comfortably with some small 
children’s socks it had stolen. Rats are said to 
always come where there is grain, but so far we 
have not suffered from them, though one or two 
mice have been caught, chiefly in the passage and 
seed-room. In the solitary instance when the rat 
came after the pigeons, I think it was partially 
due to the pulling down of some very old buildings 
close by, and so the rats got disturbed and were 
obliged to seelx new quarters. 
If you have a suspicion that mice are about, | 
know of no better plan than to get a small wooden 
box, and inside it place an ‘‘Out 0’ Sight” spring 
mouse-trap, costing 2d. This you should nail 
down to the bottom of the box to prevent it shift- 
ing, then cut a small hole large enough for a 
mouse to enter at one end of the box, and set your 
trap, baiting it with strong cheese. In this way 
there is no fear in setting the trap that the doves 
will get caught in it, for if it were set with no 
protection the doves would be certain to peck the 
cheese, and would as certainly get caught by the 
beak, and either brealx it or die from shock and 
suffocation. I once had a favourite little wild 
robin that we had tamed who got killed in this 
way. He was only in the trap about a minute, 
but he was caught by the beak and quite dead 
when I found him. Of course, this plan of putting 
the trap in a box would not be safe to try where 
there were any birds small enough to go through 
the entrance hole. 
Every year, and sometimes twice a year, I get a 
good load of Scotch Fir branches to fasten up in 
the aviaries for cover. I have tried other firs, but 
none keep the ‘‘needles’’ on save the Scotch. I 
pay tos. a load for them, carting and delivery free. 
I am fortunate in living in a very wooded country, 
but if you are not I would advise the use of pea 
rods stretched flat «cross the corners of the shelter. 
Gorse I do not care for, the spines are dangerous. 
Bracken may be used, and the undergrowth when 
a wood is cleared out. As cleanliness is most im- 
portant in an aviary, I prefer to renew the cover 
every year. 
In some aviaries bushes are planted in the flights 
or grown in pots, and if this is done in an open 
part of the aviary where there is rain to wash the 
cover and keep it clean it may be satisfactory, but 
our English summers are too uncertain to rear 
young birds out in the open. I never fasten up 
any branches or nest pans save where the nesting 
birds would have a roof over their heads, for J 
am sure the young birds should be kept dry if 
they are to be kept healthy. 
The fir branches generally want a little trimming 
with a cutter before they are fastened up with nails 
and wire to the aviary walls, for a long length of 
bare branch is of no use to you, and only makes a 
greater weight for the nails to carry. The nails 
should be strong and large-headed, so that the 
wire does not slip over the head. Quite short 
lengths of pliable wire will do, just long enough 
to go once or twice round the branch and round 
the nail; then twist the ends of the wire together 
and nip them off close and hammer them flat 
against the branch, so that the birds do not catch 
on them. The branches are fastened some feet 
from the ground, so as to give more floor room, 
and also to prevent mice running up them, and 
are placed in an upright position as if they were 
growing. Ifa branch is very heavy it should be 
wired in several places. It is really better to have 
