XIII 

 THE AVIARY 



IF one has not room, or for any reason pre- 

 fers not to give the time and trouble necessary 

 to maintain what I have called a bird-room, he 

 or she may find much enjoyment with an aviary. 

 The distinction I make between the two is this : 

 in the former, human beings may also live, with 

 almost no inconvenience, since the homes of 

 the birds are in cages, even though these may 

 stand open most of the time, while an aviary 

 is an apartment entirely given up to birds 

 without cages. 



The largest aviary I have seen was tenanted 

 by two hundred canaries, and it gave great de- 

 light to every one who visited it, in spite of the 

 fact that a canary shows less intelligence than 

 most of our native birds. Being a regular cage 

 product, he appears, like a slave born of a race 

 of slaves, to lack some of the wide-awake 

 acuteness of birds born in freedom. 



