INTRODUCTION. 



HABITATION OF CAGE OR CHAMBER BIRDS. 



Birds which are kept only on account of their beauty, or for 

 their animation and vivacity, are generally kept best in a room 

 where they can run or fly freely about, and where they can 

 resort at night for repose, to a large cage of many compart- 

 ments, or to one or more fir trees. But larger birds should 

 have an apartment expressly appropriated to them, as their 

 faeces smell unpleasantly in a dwelling room, whence also they 

 require constant cleaning. Smaller birds may be allowed to 

 run freely about, having a small tree or a cage hung up for 

 them to roost in. With this degree of liberty, many birds sing 

 better than when confined in a cage. 



Cleanliness is in every respect very important in keeping 

 birds, for they are not only thereby preserved for many years 

 but it keeps them constantly healthy and cheerful ; hence it is 

 necessary that the cage should be cleaned at least once a- week, 

 and birds which run about upon the ground, should have the 

 sand renewed frequently ; the perches also of such as use them 

 should be carefully cleaned. If this be not attended to, the 

 birds will become sickly, and will suffer from lame feet, gout, 

 and other maladies, terminating in the loss of their toes, as all 

 must have experienced who have been accustomed to keep 

 birds, and have neglected cleansing them. In cleaning their 

 feet, it is very requisite that the bird should have them dipped 

 in water before the dirt is removed ; for if this be not done, the 

 skin, to which the dirt closely adheres, comes off with it, which 

 renders the bird not merely lame, but also attracts to the part 

 all the unhealthy humors generated by their unnatural mode 

 of living. 



It is in the feet indeed that cage or chamber birds chiefly 

 suffer, and they must be daily examined to see that nothing 

 gets entangled about them, as hair thus twisted will frequently 

 cut very deep, and in the course of a few days, that portion of 

 the foot or toe, so tied up, will dry up and fall off. Very great 



