on the best system of feeding insectivorous birds. 177


wild state are for ever on the move, flitting from one bough to

another, hopping here and there, scarcely on one twig for more than

a few seconds at a time. A Crystal Palace cage, all wire, with a

dome in the centre makes an ideal cage for a pair of gold-crested

wrens. One perch at each end of the cage close to the floor, one

perch in the middle half way up will do, and in the dome a few

pine branches which these birds are fond of playing about on and

roosting in will be sufficient.


Cleanliness.


This is another important item. A bird however suitably fed,

with sufficient exercise will, sooner or later, go wrong if the water is

allowed to become foul and the perches or draw board of its cage

not kept clean.


In an aviary it is easier to keep birds clean than in a cage.


I wash the perches every morning and clean every drawer board

every other day and use about half-an-inch of moderately coarse

pine saw dust, taking the drawer boards out and sifting the dust

and throwing the soiled portion into the waste box, and by just

sprinkling a little fresh dust on top all is again sweet and clean. If

the perches and drawer boards are allowed to get really dirty this

will happen, the bird gets a little of the excrement on its feet and

slightly soils the perch, each time it adds a little more dirt to the

perch and also more to the underpart of the feet. In hot weather

especially, this hardens on the feet and might not be noticed by the

ordinary observer until a little lump ever so small is seen on the

toe ; if this is allowed to remain on the toe for only a few days it

will have become as hard as cement, and when the bird’s toe has

been washed there will be a very tiny brown spot just noticeable on

the underpart of the toe, and when the bird is replaced in the cage,

whenever the bird gets the perches soiled the dirt will cling again to

this very toe and on the self same spot. If the bird is turned into

an aviary, where it can go into some water when it likes, nothing

more may occur, but if still kept in a cage, of which the perches and

floor are not kept reasonably clean, the toe mentioned will by degrees

become slightly swollen, and as often as not, as the disease pro¬

gresses, the claw down to this diseased joint will wither up, result

loss of a toe, the toe actually falls off ; but this disease, for it is a



