Belgian Breeding-Cage. 



213 



than agreeable. But there are all descriptions of rooms, and all kinds of ways of managing the 

 birds. Respecting the breeding-cages, their forms are legion : high, low, broad, narrow, shut-up 

 and open all round, with, however, three points of likeness — glass fountains are universal, the seed 

 is always placed inside the cage in some sort of box arrangement, and the nest-boxes are always 

 placed outside. Basket-nests are universally used, and excellently made they are." 



This arrangement of the outer nest-box and the insertion of the basket-nest differs 

 from our usual English plan, though it resembles in principle that of the " London " cage, 

 with its little room. In cage-appliances, however, custom goes a long way, and we will 

 not undertake to say that one system of arrangement is superior to another in so far as 

 the successful rearing of young birds is affected by it. The most we can do is to describe 

 the various breeding appliances as W2 meet with them, leaving it to the practical fancier 

 to adopt them or adhere to his own contrivances. There is scarcely a breeding-room we 

 enter without finding a departure from some detail which, from long acquaintance, appears to 

 us a necessity ; but it is proverbial that some workmen manage best with their own tools. 



FIG. 59. — BELGIAN BREEDING-CAGE. 



FIG. 60. — NEST-BOX (ENLARGED). 



As an illustration of this, though it relates more directly to rearing generally, than to 

 the use of special appliances, our authority says, in a very amusing manner : — " I will 

 give you an instance of peculiar management quite unique in its way. A fancier of my 

 acquaintance, of forty years' standing, during a period of five months in the breeding 

 season neither drinks wine nor any strong drink, and abstains from tobacco, simply, as he 

 says, 'to keep his saliva clean,' as his mouth is then employed for other purposes, chiefly 

 as a mashing-machine in which he prepares all the soft food for his young birds, which he 

 feeds about every quarter of an hour, whether the parents do so or not. Another breaks a 

 piece of hard-boiled egg with his fingers, and throws it down v\ a lump with a quantum 

 of bread, say every three or four days, and cleans his cages out at intervals of weeks ; and 

 yet both have extraordinary good luck at times." 



The breeding-cage for Belgians need not differ in any material respect from that in ordinary 

 use for other varieties, except that if it be made a trifle more roomy it will be no disadvantage. 

 There should also be a liberal supply of perches, seed and water and food of every description 

 being placed where it is accessible from a perch rather than from the ground. 



Of more importance than the cage is its situation ; and we cannot too often repeat the 

 injunction to be careful to avoid draughts as the source of infinite trouble. The temperature 

 of a breeding-room devoted to Belgians should also be a matter for careful arrangement, not 



