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Alice Hutchinson



and the cage has such a light, dainty appearance that my wife is

glad to have one in the parlour. Still more important, the cage

offers almost no obstruction to viewing the bird.


The reason I put three doors in the cage is this : I can put any

number of such cages in a row, side by side, and can have one, two,

or more rows stacked on the top of the first. From the front,

without disturbing the stack, I can give the birds all the attention

needed, removing the drawer, placing perches and nests, giving seed,

water, etc. The side doors are used to allow a bird, when so desired,

to pass from one cage into the next, which is useful in many ways :

as, for matching and mating : for allowing a timid bird to go into the

next cage while his own is being cleaned ; for allowing a pair of

birds to occupy two cages, or more than two ; and for performing

many experiments on the social behaviour of birds, this being the

subject in which I am especially interested.


Of course the cage here described, having spaces about 1 in.

wide between wires, is suitable only for such birds as doves, not for

small birds. For smaller birds one would need an electrically welded

fabric with narrower spaces and thinner wires. No such fabric is on

the market, and the manufacturers do not like to make one, because

of the difficulty of welding small wdres ; but it can be done, for The

Toledo Electric Welder Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio, made samples for

me, consisting of wires less than IT mm. in diameter welded to cross

wires 2 mm. in diameter, at distances of about half an inch. If some

firm would weld such a fabric regularly and put it on the market it

would be a boon to aviculturists. An electrically welded fabric is

wonderfully convenient for making cages : one can cut it into pieces

of any size and shape, and even the smallest of these pieces will hold

its shape, because wherever two wires cross they are welded solidly

to one another.



SPARROW CLUBS.


By Alice Hutchinson.


It is to be hoped that everybody read the admirable article

which appeared in the ‘ Daily Chronicle ’ of May 30th, written by Lady

Warwick, dealing with the share which children are taking in the

wholesale destruction of sparrows.



