32 Calvaries and Cage-Birds. 



side as to spill half the water it may hold. To harmonise with the cage our door must have a 

 wooden frame ; indeed, no other description of door would work well under a wooden cross-bar. 

 It is, however, very simple in construction. It cannot be higher than the six inches allowed for it, 

 and the only question is as to the width. Assuming the compartment to be eighteen inches wide, 

 it will give us thirty-six wires, according to our plan of spacing out. The third part of that is 

 twelve, so that if we leave the middle twelve holes in the bottom unwired, it will require a door 

 just six inches square to fit exactly. The use of our lengths of pierced cross-bars will now be 

 apparent. We have nothing to do but to cut off two pieces, each containing twelve holes, 

 allowing very nearly the whole half-inch before the first hole and behind the last — that is to say, 

 we must not cut the length off directly through the first hole and through the twelfth, but before 

 and behind them — we want twelve clear holes, and a small piece over at each end. Place these 

 two pieces face to face, and it will be seen the holes correspond exactly — one is the top of the 

 door and the other the bottom. The side-pieces are of the same dimensions with respect to 

 thickness (but, of course, are not cut from pierced lengths), and must be cut of the precise length 



FIG. 7. — WOODEN DOOR. 



required. Place one of them fair under the second hole of the top piece, and a single brad driven 

 through the hole will fix it in its place ; do the same with the other, placing it under the eleventh 

 or last hole but one ; turn it up and put the bottom piece on in the same way, and the door-frame 

 is complete. Wire it, and it only then remains to hang it, which is done by unshipping the 

 twelfth long wire on the right-hand side of the cage, and, after placing the door so that the 

 twelfth hole of the door-frame is under the twelfth hole of the main middle cross-bar, replacing 

 the long wire, on which the door will swing as on a hinge. Notch off the inside of the top and 

 bottom pieces of the door-frame at the other end, so that when it shuts it may catch against the 

 twelfth wire on the left-hand side, and the door when closed will fit flush with the front. The 

 whole thing will take scarcely more time to do than it has taken us to write the details, and 

 when a set of cages is being made of uniform dimensions and uniform scale of wiring, a dozen, 

 twenty, any number of doors can be put together by cutting up the pierced lengths, without any 

 necessity for measurement, and with the certainty of any one door exactly fitting any one cage, 

 whether made specially for it or not. If one should happen to be a shade tight, the slightest 

 tap under the middle cross-piece will give it liberty ; or if it should be too slack, a downward 

 tap between the wires will improve matters without putting the bar out of square in a way to 

 offend the eye. 



There is another description of door which requires still less making. It is shaped like a 

 block letter T, with a foot the same width as the head, and is simply a skeleton-door with an 



