34 



Canaries and Cage-Birds. 



uppermost. Notice the formation of a Canary's foot, and the reason will be evident. They should 

 rest on the cross-bar, and project an inch or two, so as to allow of their being drawn out at 

 pleasure for being cleaned, &c. ; and if a stock be kept ready, with a brad filed up to a sharp point 

 inserted in one end, they will often be handy to push in here and there in various positions as 

 occasion may require. A perch may also be put lengthways, to enable the birds to get at the 

 seed and water easily. 



Such is our cage. We have been minute in our description of it, because we think that 

 many may wish to try their hand at cage-making. The lathe and the bench are now-a-days 

 common accessories to a country-house, and we find many seeking recreation in pursuits which 

 entail a large amount of what is neither more nor less than hard work. But the old saying, that 

 what is one man's meat is another man's poison, can be translated in various ways. Sedentary 

 occupations find relief in severe exercise ; and the city man, Avho has been boxed up in his office 

 all day, regards it as a positive treat to turn up his shirt-sleeves and have a turn at his bench, or 

 a spell in his garden for hours after his gardener has pulled off his boots, smoked his nightly 

 churchwarden, and retired to bed thoroughly tired out with precisely the same work. We have 



^■4-4. 



'=^Hf=4^ 



FIG. 10.— SLIDING DOOR. 



not aimed at making this part of our subject a treatise on joinery, and have studiously avoided 

 technicalities in a description we wish to give in terms as plain and homely as possible. To us, 

 half the fun consists in being our own designer, architect, and builder. The appliances for the 

 carrying out of our hobby are few and simple, and when we require any we just turn to and 

 make them ; and we wish to show others how to do the same, if their inclination tends in the 

 same direction. 



Before dismissing the subject of cage-making, we must refer briefly to one other method 

 of wiring, simply because it involves the use of an excellent description of self-closing door, 

 very much in use, both in breeding and exhibition cages. We have before stated that wire 

 fronts, made in the piece, are best left to a practical wire-worker, though there is no reason 

 why a fancier may not unite that art to his other accomplishments, or even wield the soldering 

 iron and become his own plumber. The method of wiring, however, to which we now refer 

 needs no practical hand, and consists in substituting, in place of the wooden cross-bar, a cross 

 piece of stout wire, to which the upright wires must be bound in the manner previously 

 indicated. The door, a pattern of which we show in our illustration, can then be made to slide 

 up and down, and if carefully put together is a most effective self-closing arrangement, which, 

 with its extreme lightness, constitute its chief excellence. Even if it should not slide or fall 



