144 Song Birds. 



it in the moss and ferns of a plant-case, hanging it 

 in a wire frame surrounded with moss, in a greenhouse 

 or room aviary, or letting it stand on a moss-covered 

 pedestal. In a cage, most probably, it would require 

 to hang near the floor, or to stand on it ; if there are 

 shrubs, it looks very pretty in the moss beneath them. 



I hope, in what has been said on this subject, 

 nothing will have seemed to advocate a heap of trum- 

 pery and unmeaning ornaments. My excuse for 

 introducing the subject so prominently as this is, that 

 some "heap of stones" or shells being required for 

 victual use, it seems absurd to avoid using a class of 

 objects which have been only rendered ridiculous by 

 being employed in things that are both ugly and 

 unmeaning. The gathering of the materials, shells, 

 &c., is also a great delight, and if they could be 

 made useful it would add to the pleasure. 



10. There is hardly anything in which modern 

 cages are more faulty than the seed and water vessels. 

 When I was a child, I had a number of old cages 

 that had been laid aside for I dare say ten years, 

 and, certainly, those cages were preferable to any that 

 I see now. They had, I remember, things like wash- 

 hand-stands, which turned in and out, were fitted 

 with nice large glasses, and had a sort of roof to 

 prevent the birds walking into them. The drawers, 

 too, were good deep ones, with a long row of holes for 

 the birds to eat through. 



