36 The Canary Book. 



a deadly poison. I do not like those fancy painted cages, 

 either: the paint is baked on, and the birds can peck it 

 off quite easily, which they invariably do, and disaster follows. 

 FLIGHT -CAGES. Where a fancier breeds young canaries 

 by the hundred he is obliged to have recourse to temporary 

 places of abode for them, to save him not only the expense 

 of a large outlay for cages, but a great deal of labour in 

 feeding and watering the birds. If you have a good deep 

 recess at the side of a chimney in your bird-room, you 

 can easily put a few shelves across it, about four feet 

 apart, a few wood uprights and cross-bars, and wire it; 

 but the better plan is to make a solid framed front to 

 each compartment; this can be hung with hinges or 

 fastened on with small screws or metal "buttons," the same 

 as are used for closet doors, but smaller; if you desire to 

 be very economical, or are wishful to save yourself much 

 labour, you can cover the front with half-inch diamond- 

 shaped wire-work, which you can buy in the piece at any 

 professional wire-worker's use the galvanised, which will 

 last for a number of years. I have a fly made in one 

 corner of one of my bird-rooms ; it is placed 4ft. from the 

 floor, and extends in height to the ceiling, which forms the 

 top, the wall forms the back and one end, the other end 

 extends from the ceiling to the floor, and is part wood 

 and part glass; the wood -work is about five-and-a-half feet 

 from the floor of the room. I have a hole cut in it Sin. 

 deep, framed round and wired like a cage front: upon this 

 I hang two troughs made of zinc with glass fronts; they 

 hold about three half-pints of water each. The front is 

 formed of glass frames, being part of a glass case such as 

 chemists use ; the centre frame is hung with hinges and 

 forms a door, and is fastened with a brass button ; this 

 framework rests upon a stout lath 2|in. wide and lin. in 

 thickness; below this are two deals Gin. in depth, hinged 

 at the top, and each extends half of the whole length of 

 the fly they lift up to enable me to clean it out, which 

 I can do with a small iron rake. I give them water 



