134 Practical Bird-Keeping. — II. The British Warblers.


nocturnal enemies are mostly four-footed. In a large cage one

usually sees a large number of perches but this appears to me to

be quite a wrong principle. We shall only require two perches

and those should be set as far apart as possible and should be

twigs of varying diameter, thus preventing any tendency to

cramp. The object of setting our perches as far apart as possible

is to compel our Warblers to fly from perch to perch (instead of

jumping) thus exercising their wing-muscles. Except in a

position where it is impossible to avoid draughts the ends (sides)

of the cage should not be of wood. With a cage of this type it

is quite easy to make a single bird take regular exercise. All

that is necessary is to lightly tap one end of the cage, thus

inducing the bird to flv to the opposite perch; then to tap the

other end of the cage, thus driving it back to its original position.

After a little practice it will be found that the bird can be made

to take really hard exercise in this way and this can be continued

until it shows signs of distress by opening its beak. Contrary to

what might be supposed this system of exercising will not make

a bird wild. I once had a Sprosser, which I used to frequently

exercise in this way, and yet it became so familiar that I

succeeded in training it to sing to command and several of my

friends can testify that it would do this even in an out-door

aviary and in the presence of strangers.


Wire netting does not look so well for cages as wiring but

it is infinitely preferable because in this way only can mice be

excluded. I think we can go so far as to say that any cage to

which mice have access, no matter what its cost or how artistic

its appearance, is a bad cage. The netting I recommend is of

three-eighths of an inch mesh and can be obtained at Gamage’s

to order, but only in lengths of 50 yards.


Aviaries.


A mere glance at the names of the species in oui list will

convince 11s that one type of aviary cannot possibly suit the

requirements of all ; and, moreover, the same design would not

suit all pockets or all tastes, so in the matter of aviaries it will

be better merely to suggest what should be avoided and what

should be aimed at in designing a summer aviary for small insec¬

tivorous birds.



