17 



"bird- cages of every form and description. Swiss cot- 

 tages, Chinese pagodas, Grothic churches, and Indian 

 temples, with their painted domes and minarets, all 

 doing great credit to the taste and enterprise of our 

 workers in tin, but utterly unadapted to the purpose 

 required. To do this satisfactorily we maintain that 

 the cage should always be subordinate to the bird, and 

 its main object be to set off to the greatest advantage 

 the plumage of the latter, and just in proportion as it 

 does this will it come up to our leau ideal of what a 

 cage should be. "Whenever we see a beautiful canary 

 imprisoned in one of these gorgeously got up gim- 

 cracks of zinc, we always feel very much what an 

 artist in some picture exhibition, standing near his 

 own production to hear the criticisms of the public, 

 may be supposed to feel, as he hears some unsophis- 

 ticated party exclaim, ' Oh, my ! what a beautiful 

 frame 1' No, this is surely putting the cart before the 

 horse, and therefore at once disposes of all these pretty 

 toys, as fit and proper habitations for our pet. No 

 one who has had a bird fit to be called a canary will 

 ever hide him in one of these, whilst those who possess 

 the lowest kind of the species only will hardly think 

 them to be worthy of so expensive a domicile. 



" For single birds the two cages we should recom- 

 mend are the japanned bell- shaped cage, and the plain 

 square white tinned sort. The former is light, airy 



2 



