1 ey OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS. 
We were tempted at first to put a little open-work 
basket in the cage, but we remembered an experience 
which we had some years before, and did not use the 
basket. 
The experience was this. We hung a tiny basket 
in the canary’s cage, and the birds made a thin nest in 
it and hatched their eggs. The male had been very 
active, helping his mate in all the ways he could think 
of, and he thought he would mend the nest one day. 
So he began to peck at the string through the meshes 
of the basket, reaching up from the bottom. We did 
not think he was doing any harm, till we noticed what 
looked like a bird’s foot hanging down through the 
bottom of the basket. What was our astonishment to 
find that the old bird had pulled off the legs of the 
young birds, stupidly thinking that he was tugging at 
the twine. 
Of course we did not put a basket in the robins’ cage, 
but we found a round butter mould, which answered 
just as well. The birds were very much pleased with 
the butter mould, and began carrying straw and mud 
which we gave to them, until they had quite a respect- 
able robin’s nest. We do not know whether wild 
robins would nest in a butter mould, if we should 
fasten it in the crotch of an apple tree or swing it from 
the branches, but it would be quite worth one’s while 
to try, 1f one is living where there are wild robins. 
One morning we found a blue egg in the nest. The 
birds were surprised. They hopped on the rim of the 
