108 Frank W. Hansell—An Easily Constructed Outdoor Aviary


Most of the Mandarins and Carolinas are full winged and as many

as sixty were seen on the pond feeding. The Sarus Cranes again nested.

One pair in the usual place across the river and brought back one young

one. Another pair nested in a field about 4 miles away and brought two

young ones back. A third pair also reared one young one away from

home. In all four fine young were reared. It is a lovely sight to see

as many as seven on the wing at one time. I am afraid I am getting

very disliked by my neighbours on account of the row the Cranes make

at night. I get letters of complaint very often, but unfortunately,

as the birds are full winged, I cannot catch them. I hope it will not

end in my having to shoot them. My Stanley Cranes hatched out

two young ones but these only lived seventeen days.



AN EASILY CONSTRUCTED OUTDOOR


AVIARY


By Frank W. Hansell


With a hobby of any kind it gives to the enthusiast an added interest

and pleasure in the pursuit thereof if he can make by hand as much of

the apparatus necessary to his hobby as possible. In the case of the

bird fancier there is an unlimited amount of the equipment which the

average individual can make for himself, without any expert knowledge

of carpentry or technical skill, nor does he require an elaborate kit of

tools.


After endeavouring to breed and rear Budgerigars (Milopsittacus

undulatus) in small cages the writer found that the only satisfactory

and successful method was an outside aviary, details and the con¬

struction of which he will try to describe.


It might be said that, while situated at an altitude of about four

hundred feet in central Perthshire, he has bred Budgerigars during

December with the temperature of the atmosphere at 10 degrees of

frost, and he attributes his success to the fact that the birds had

plenty of room for exercise and flight.


One peculiar feature in the habits of the writer’s birds of both

the green and blue varieties, which have been reared in the aviary, is



