4 ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. 
The Rev. Thomas Burney, in response to a request for 
assistance as the proper style of house for waterfowl, was good 
enough to give the following instructions for the construction 
of a duck coop suitable for both winter and summer use, which 
I reproduce verbatim from the columns of the Leve Stock 
Journal, in which paper the correspondence occurred :— 
‘* Get from a saw and planing mill a plank of red or yellow deal 12 
in. by 3 in. (full), and order it to be split and planed into 1% in. boards. 
Of these good kennels may be made, with sides 32 in. high, and of inside 
length 18 in., and width 133% in.; but not with wooden floors. The 
birds are better with the breast to the ground, or ona bed of dry sedges, 
obtainable, of any basket maker.” 
I may mention that where sedges are not procurable, 
refuse straw or the dry beech and other leaves, which may be 
swept up during the autumn, and kept in a cool dry place, 
are very suitable for this purpose. 
The same gentleman described a fence which he had 
found sufficient to protect the waterfowl from the attacks of 
rats and foxes. 
* The enclosure is formed by unclimbable iron hurdles. Each hurdle 
is 6ft. long by 4 ft. 6 in. high, formed of two heads and two horizontal 
bars, pierced with 18 vertical % in. sharp-pointed rods, between them, 
rising 11 in, above the bar; and all painted with genuine white lead and 
bin-oxide of iron paint. Under the bottom bar of each hurdle three slates, 
2 ft. by 1 ft., are let into the ground edgewise. Above it, and between 
the heads (except where glass is used), is fixed ly wire to the rods a sheet 
of zine 6 ft. long by 2 ft. 6 in. wide. Along the top of the sheet is also 
affixed a half-inch spline of wood 3 in. wide, and painted green; and to 
the top edge of this spline is nailed with tin-tacks 3/ in. long and with round 
shanks, a shelf of zinc 4 in. wide and projecting outwards. This shelf 
must be continuous, or the rats will run up the hurdle heads. 
‘Such a fence, if nothing be set against it, will assuredly keep out 
rats, but foxes may still be troublesome ; for that very rat-puzzling shelf 
of zinc might assist them. Pointed staples, however, 10 in. long, made of 
drawn ribbed iron bar and galvanized, are sold by ironmongers. By means 
of the screw bolts connecting the hurdles, the head of one of these, with 
its hole enlarged, may be fixed between the hurdle head so as to project 
outwards horizontally, at about 6 in. above the zinc shelf, at the end of 
