192 Management of Cages 



It is after this fashion that I have seen birds fed. 



A certain quantity of food is left over in the 

 morning in the cage of a nightingale, a shama, or a 

 blue thrush, enough to last with a little more added, 

 and so the supply overlaps for some days. 



It is like the butter to match the bread, and then 

 the bread to fit the butter ! 



The economy of not wasting the supply is a very 

 false one, for you waste your bird's constitution instead, 

 and then you hear the complaint : " I shall give up 

 keeping those insectivorous birds, they are always 

 dying." 



Make it a rule that the cage drawer is cleaned 

 every morning, unless Sunday is excepted in the case 

 of many cages ; and that fresh sand — good gritty sand — 

 is liberally sprinkled on, that each vessel is thoroughly 

 scoured and as clean as you wish your own breakfast 

 plate to be, that the food shall be sweet and the water 

 pure. As to both of these, see that neither one nor 

 the other is placed under any perch where the birds 

 can mess into them. 



It exasperates me to see people who have no eye 

 for that which is an immediate eyesore. These sort 

 of things can quite well be avoided, and when they 

 happen must imply that the bird keeper has not 

 really a love for birds. Imagine making a poor bird, 

 who in a wild state would always obtain the purest 

 water — in the case of a blue thrush the clear running 

 water of a mountain rill — drink that which is con- 

 taminated by that which when dropped on the sand 

 is perfectly cleanly and of no offence to the laws of 



