.1/v Latest Apiaries, etc. 
177 
would meet the case. I will not linj^'er over the description of 
this i^art of my task; I did not enjoy it, but in the end it was 
accomplished — the .q'round was dug out and wire-netting laid 
down 12 inches below the ground level, carefully woven together 
and connected up to the flight framing and outhouse fronts, and 
the earth thrown in again — the netting was placed at this depth 
lielow ground to allow of the free planting of bushes on top of 
same, and to save labour T did the planting before filling in. 
simply placed the bushes in ])osition and threw in the earth 
around them. 
With this introduction and some indication of the 
difficulties occasioned by war-time, T need only describe the 
aviaries ,and this is partlv done by the Groimd Plan and photos 
illustrating these notes. 
AvTARTKs T. 2, AND 3. — T need only remark that I got the 
skeleton framing up and the netting stretched in due course, and 
then had the local builder in to clean down and lime-wash the 
outhouses and concrete the floors. In the first instance T merely 
used these aviaries as temporary accommodation for the birds 
I had retained from my Mitcham collection, but T will describe 
the aviaries as they arc now with their present occupants. T had 
better add here that in spite of all my care the rats got in and T 
suffered serious loss before their entry was discovered — the 
brutes burrowed under eight feet of concrete till pulled up by 
the wire netting, then ate their way up through the interior posts, 
which went into the ground below the netting of flights and 
concrete floors of shelter. T had to cut through these posts just 
above ground level, hack out the portion sunk into the ground, 
filling in the holes with cement containing a good portion of 
broken glass, and T have not been troubled with these pests 
since. 
GUIDE TO GROUND PLAN. 
Drawn to scale of qii.Trter-inch to the foot, hut rcdticcd onc-eig-hth In 
reproduction. 
■ Indicates framing' and internal standards. 
Dot-shaded areas indicate gravel. 
Irregularly drawn circles indicate position of shrubs and trees. 
Irregularly drawn ovals indicate clumps of green and golden privet, 
willow licrh. raspberry canes, etc. 
