FORMATION OF PENS -AilD AVIAEIES. 59 



liberty accorded them, tlie pens are completely denuded a£ their conteiits. The 

 grotmd is trenched spade deep, thickly sown with unslacked lime, then covered 

 with from two to three inches of fresh clean dry loam, and finally freely moistened 

 with water through an ordinary garden-rosed watering-pot, when any floating lime 

 dust is effectually disposed of, and the young birds may with safety be introduced. 

 "Our aviary, in its entirety, . measures in width about 27ft., and length 108ft., 

 there being, however, three transverse divisions, four square compartments are 

 thus formed. A small trench, one foot in depth, is dug around the whole structure. 

 A piece of stout wire netting, one foot six inches in width, placed with one 

 edge in the bottom of the trench, has its other laced with wire to the hurdles, 

 up the outside of which it extends nine inches, when the earth is filled in, and 

 rammed. The inclosure is thus rendered fox, cat, and rabbit-proof; it has further 

 attached to it ' gorse bavins,' thus securing warmth and privacy. The whole of 

 the other portions have now strained over them stout l^in. mesh galvanised wire 

 netting, the top only carefully left free, for ingress and egress of wild birds. Inside 

 each compartment, and parallel with the divisions, is now placed a row of bush 

 bavins, one against the other, tightly pressed together, forming an inverted letter V. 

 On the apex of these faggots the birds love to perch, preen, and doze, whUe a secure 

 retreat in case of sudden fright is offered by the little tunnel left at the base. A 

 few faggots may also for a similar purpose be placed leaning against the sides and 

 corners of the inclosure, those angles where the doors are hung excepted. 



"We have also two smaller pens, alike in all respects, and attached to those 

 already described, but in measurement only 10ft. by 7ft. These are used for the 

 temporary confinement of any quarrelsome egg" destroying or otherwise refractory 

 bird, who can thus, until its wing is sufficiently strong for flight, remain. One of 

 the hurdles dividing these small pens from its neighbours — as, indeed, in each of 

 the interior divisions — should be easUy removable to the end, that the birds can at 

 pleasure be driven right through into the smaller pens for the purpose of capture, 

 wing-cHpping, &c. 



" The introduction and placing about occasionally of freshly-cut fir tree 

 branches is judicious. With reference to aliment, the greater the variety offered 

 the better; and for a thoroughly trustworthy detail upon this vital point, again I 

 gratefully add vide ' Tegetmeier.' Regularity in the hours of feeding, however, is 

 as essential as is the quality of food administered — three times diumaUy, any 

 unfinished dSbris of the previous meal having first been carefully removed, should 

 the repasts be neatly and delicately served, not forgetting that, while all required 

 is offered with no niggard hand, over-lavish generosity, only too often the mere 

 promptings of laziness, ought most carefully to be avoided. 



" Powerless are the prisoners to escape those fatal miasmatic vapours speedily 

 generated by decaying vegetable and animal matter, which, when permitted to daily 



I 2 



