J. Appleby—Notes from a Lancashire Aviary 207


NOTES FROM A LANCASHIRE AVIARY


By J. Appleby


It is some years since I sent a few notes on feeding the commoner

Finches and other small birds (December, 1934), and asking other

members to give ns the benefit of their advice and experience.


My suggestion fell on barren ground or, at any rate, I have missed

the articles.


“ The time has come,” the Walrus said, “ to talk of many


things-—of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings.”


Hence these discursive notes on a very ordinary aviary, but which

I rather fancy is the usual form Aviculture takes with most of our

members, even though Parrots and Birds of Paradise may take a

prominent position among the more opulent.


Building Aviaries


I wonder how many people use galvanized iron pipes for the frame¬

work of their flights. It costs more than wood, but the durability is

a lifetime, and now that the Coronation stands are coming down, tubes

ought to go cheap. Cut into the requisite lengths screwed at each end,

tee and angle-pieces can be fixed and any rectangular structure built,

over this wire can be strained tightly and you have as good and as

lasting a structure as any they have at the Zoo.


An inch tube is strong enough for a 9 ft. wide and 10 ft. high frame,

and if put up in 6 ft. sections to take 6 ft. wide f in. wire, the tubes

should be 5 ft. 10 in. long to allow for the coupling, your wire will then

lace up tight. Now as to wire, f or J in. mesh of 19 gauge should be used,

the former if you are likely to be troubled with mice. Paint every¬

thing, tubes and wire, with one of the many forms of black bituminous

paint, ordinary oil paint won’t last and does not preserve the metal,

and black so that the wire is not too obvious.


Of course, all this is heresy to the advocator of movable aviaries.

But how many of us can or wish to move our birds about all over the

garden. Iron tube has one pull over wood, you can take it to pieces

and cart it away and put it up as before and just as sound, only see

that all the joints are greased when erecting.



