NESTS AND OTHER APPLIANCES 



73 



Miscellaneous 

 Hints. 



lated dust at tiie bottom of the hopper 

 will become a moving mass of mites. 

 Sieves can be jirocured in varj'ing sizes, but 

 one of the smaller is most generally useful. 

 A judicious manager will gradually con- 

 fiscate such articles as a water-can, a gal- 

 vanised pail, a brush and 

 dust-pan, a scuttle, and 

 other useful articles which 

 he may find about the house, and care- 

 fully lock them up in his bird-room to 

 prevent their being again " lost " or mis- 

 laid. He will find a use for them all. If 

 he be wise he will also have a small lock- 

 up store -chest, in which he will from time 

 to time stow away medicines and other 

 small sundry articles which are required to 

 be in readiness when occasion necessitates. 

 If a stout little table, with a nest of 

 drawers, and a comfortable chair have 

 been quietly carried upstairs, there re- 

 mains nothing for the fancier to do but to 

 lock his bird-room door, put the key in 

 his pocket, and, calling his household 



together, proceed to the enactment of the 

 most stringent laws with regard to the 

 pains and penalites which will follow any 

 attempt to pry into the secrets of his sanciuin 

 sanctorum. It will be well for him to re- 

 member that he will have to be his own 

 servant and charwoman, and will have to 

 practise carrying his scuttle downstairs 

 in a way calculated not to disturb the 

 amicable relations existing between him- 

 self and the guardians of the neutral 

 territory through which he has to travel. 

 There is an art in filling a scuttle and an 

 art in carrying it, and our practical ex- 

 perience leads us to suggest, in the interests 

 of domestic peace, the wisdom of studying 

 both. Bird-seed and chaff have a natural 

 affinity for stair-carpets, and have a way 

 of their own of working into them in defi- 

 ance of any combination of bristles with 

 Avhich we are acquainted ; and Pater- 

 familias will soon see the value of our 

 hints and the desirability of carefully 

 effacing all signs of his trail. 



EXTERIOR OF AVIARV SHOWN ON I'AGE 56. 



(Photograph supplied by Messrs. Forse aiid 6'on, Leyton.) 



10 



