20 



AVIARIES, BIRD-ROOMS AND CAGES. 



to have two of these to prevent accident ; one should be 

 half way down the door and the other high up, out of 

 the reach of children. Even if one does not happen to 

 have any of his own, visitors generally bring little 

 meddling fingers with them (half the contents of a good 

 sized aviary were once lost in this manner). 



A POINT ABOUT PERCHES. 



We. have now practically finished our little build- 

 ing, and must soon think of stocking it. But before 

 doing so it will,, of course, be necessary to fix in the 

 perches. In an outside aviary nothing looks so well as 

 a branch from a tree, or a small tree itself. One of 

 these should be selected with plenty of side branches, 

 which should vary in thickness as much as possible, 

 a point often overlooked by bird-keepers. No doubt 

 many birds, especially young ones, are crippled for the 

 want of sufficient exercise for the toes if we, ourselves, 

 were constantly handling things of exactly the same 

 thickness our hands and fingers would in time take on 

 a cramped and crippled condition. We may often see 

 an example of this in the hands of workmen daily using 

 certain tools; the muscles get fixed and the hand 

 assumes a cramped shape. It should be quite evident 

 that birds require exercise for the legs and feet as well 

 as for the wings. 



In Fig. 13 we see 

 the difference in a 

 bird's foot while perch- 

 ing upon thick and 

 thin branches, and it 

 shows that by adopting, 

 variety we give the foot 

 the necessary exercise. 



The perches must 

 be placed judiciously. 

 The interior does not 

 want to be crowded 

 with branches or there 

 will be no room for the 

 birds to fly and take 

 exercise; place them in 

 Fig. 13. Bird's Feet shown on Perches sucn a manner as 



to give them a good 



of different sizes. 



