62 



CANARY BIRDS. 



dispensable when the cages are strongly stocked, to place a 

 curtain of a suitable stuff, but not a net before the door, 

 completely covering the latter, so that, upon entering the 

 room, no bird can escape. This arrangement will also pre- 

 vent, or at least mitigate, the draught, which is always 

 dangerous. 



Interior appointments. — The room should be lavishly 

 provided with flying-poles, trees, and with dense bushes. 

 The ground, at the sides below r the bushes, should be strewn 

 round about with dry foliage and moss, and in the middle, 

 where the drinking and bathing-vessel stands, the ground 

 thickly covered w T ith sand. 



The bathing-trough must be flat and roomy, and must 

 in no case be too deep, lest some 

 awkward young bird be drowned 

 in it ; a large bottom made of zinc, 

 or some similar material, should 

 always be placed beneath it so as 

 to prevent the ground from ab- 

 sorbing the water spilled while 

 square bath. bathing, as otherwise a disagree- 



able smell, and unhealthy effluvia, w 7 ould be the con- 

 sequence. If it is only in- 

 tended for a drinking-vessel 

 and not for a bath, a trellis 

 of strong iron-w T ire upon 

 three feet is to be placed 

 in the trough. 



All feeding and drinking-vessels should be of china or 

 glass. In the large breeding-establishments in the Hartz, 

 these vessels are large earthen pots of 4 to 5 inches in 

 diameter, which are generally provided with a perforated lid 

 to protect them against any filth that might fall in, so that 

 the birds cannot bathe at all times, but only about mid-day, 



PLAT BATH. 



