i8 



British Cage Birds, 



purposes should be fitted up with a few boxes or cages, 

 wired in front to give light, and fitted inside with movable 

 nests and perches ; the fronts of these breeding compartments 

 should open on hinges, and be secured with a brass button, 

 so that they can be readily got at for the purpose of clean- 

 ing them out, or putting in clean nests. Perches, cocoanut 

 shells, baskets, and box nests should likewise be hung about 

 the walls, or suspended from the ceiling, as some birds will 

 prefer this arrangement, and it will often act as a preventive 

 to birds fighting for nesting places. The floors should be 

 raised 9in. from the ground, or even more ; in fact, where 

 wood is used, it would be a good plan to place the hot-water 

 pipes (with open metal gratings covering them) beneath the 

 floors, in close proximity to the walls. Concrete or bricks, 

 set in cement, make, however, a better flooring, as mice and 

 rats cannot then get access to the rooms. The floors should 

 be liberally strewn with sand and fine gravel, which, watered 

 lightly with a strong solution of common salt, should be raked 

 over every few days, and washed with water as occasion 

 requires. Where a drain can be conveniently put in, to carry 

 off the waste water, it will be advisable to have one. 



The external architecture is simply a matter of taste and 

 a consideration of expense. A Swiss cottage, with muUioned 

 windows, ornamental cornices, and a trellised portico entrance, 

 would form a nice design. The placing of a building of this 

 kind is also a matter of taste and convenience. It would look 

 well at the end of a lawn, or at the side of a large villa 

 residence ; a neat flower border could surround it. Trellis 

 work could be fixed to the outer walls, to carry a few creepers, 

 rose trees, or honeysuckles ; or it could be so arranged as to 

 have a gravel walk, a rockery, or shrubs and flowers round it, 

 according to the situation. By having four separate compart- 

 ments or aviaries, foreign birds could be kept in one. Canaries 

 in a second, and British birds in a third ; and the fourth could 

 be reserved for the young birds, as, when able to feed them- 

 selves, they should be removed from the other aviaries, in 

 order to prevent them interfering with their parents during 

 the breeding season. This room, however, and the wired in- 

 closure also, should be divided into separate compartments by 

 means of wired divisions, in which case, more than one aperture 

 for egress and ingress would be needed. There should also be 



