138 The Canary. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



ON CAGES. 



[AGES suitable and proper for a canary are not 

 altogether so much mere matters of taste as 

 some people are apt to imagine. They may 

 be too small or too large, too ornamental or too elabo- 

 rate in their workmanship, and in either or all of these 

 cases they do not answer the purpose required. If a 

 cage be too small it is cruel to the bird you desire to 

 pet, while if it be too large, a single bird will not only 

 appear lost in it, but in all probability it will have the 

 effect of making him less disposed to treat you with his 

 song. On the other hand, if a cage be too elaborate 

 and ornamental in its design and workmanship, the 

 effect will be to fasten the attention rather on the 

 casket than on the jewel it is meant to enshrine. Since 

 the first Great Exhibition in Hyde Park we have had 

 bird-cages of every form and description. Swiss 

 cottages, Chinese pagodas, Gothic churches, and Indian 

 temples, with their painted domes and minarets, all 

 doing great credit to the taste and enterprise of our 

 workers in tin, but utterly unadapted to the purpose 

 required. To do this satisfactorily we maintain that 

 the cage should always be subordinate to the bird, and 

 its main object be to set off to the greatest advantage 

 the plumage of the latter, and just in proportion as it 



