122 Bird-keeping. 



cage, and welcome their visitors gladly, instead of flut- 

 tering about in alarm when any one goes near them. 

 Such ,a cage as this should be open on all sides, 

 domed or waggon-shaped, and wired with tin wire, 

 unless made of lacquered brass, which must be freshly 

 lacquered once in two years. This is handsomer in 

 appearance and lasts longer : the tin wire will always 

 become blackened by time, but the rust on it is not 

 unwholesome, whereas the green rust on common brass 

 Wire, when corroded, is poisonous to the birds. The 

 wood should be either mahogany or varnished deal ; 

 the former is the best less liable to warp and less 

 likely to contain insects than the latter. The seed 

 should either be put into " bird-hoppers " or in long 

 covered boxes outside of the cage, with china or glass 

 pans to take in and out of them. The hoppers keep 

 the seed clean, and the birds peck it down, and scatter 

 away the husks. The water should either be placed in 

 glass fountains, the mouth of which goes into the cage 

 for the birds to drink from, or in similar pans in boxes 

 to those of the seed-boxes. The object is to keep both 

 seed and water from becoming dirty and from being 

 scattered and splashed about : some birds waste their 

 seed a good deal, and if a great quantity is pecked out 

 of the hopper, it is well to examine it carefully, lest it 

 should be bad, musty, or tainted by mice, and thus 

 distasteful to the birds. The old-fashioned bird-glasses 

 are objectionable, not only because they sometimes slip 



