12 
CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS. 
a standard of excellence to be imitated as closely as circum- 
stances will admit. 
Kidd recommends that an aviary should consist of two 
divisions, an inner and outer ; into the former of which shall he 1 
put, as the winter approaches, the insectiverous or soft-billed I 
birds, which are more tender and susceptible of cold than the } 
graniverous or hard-billed. The warblers are all insectiverous 
birds, and require great care and attention during- the cold 
weather, not only with regard to the temperature in whicli 
they are kept, but also as to diet, of w^hich we shall have to 
speak more at large under its proper head. The authority 
last alluded to wages uncompromising war against what he 
calls '^mechanical aviaries;" that is, certain spaces fitted 
with ornaments and cunning devices, such as wind and water 
mills, cottages, &c., with a view to picturesque effect, to 
heighten which song birds are introduced. We, too, would 
enter our protest against these puerile contrivances. Make 
an aviary as pretty as you will, but let the ornaments be 
really natural ; introduce a little rock work, wuth mosses and 
lichens, in whose tiny cups the spray of the fountains may 
glitter; let the eye be deluded by optical deceptions whicii 
increase the apparent size of the structure, and double the 
number of its inhabitants; but do not shut up your sweet 
songsters in a picture box, where all is artifice, and contrary 
to their nature and inclinations. In KidoCs Own Joxcrnal,* 
will be found very minute directions for constructing an 
aviary. Many of these directions are no doubt good, but 
as a whole, the affair seems to us too ponderous and expen- 
sive ; and it is scarcely recommended as a model by the un- - 
fortunate termination of his experiment, viz., the destruc- 
tion of nearly all his songsters by rats, which, with cats, are 
the greatest enemies to be guarded against. A layer of 
rough shingle beneath the flooring, w^hether it be of earth or 
boards, or tiles, as in Kidd's aviary, has been recommended 
as efiTectually preventing the former of these four-footed in- 
truders from effecting an entrance by burrowing; and if 
stone, iron, and glass, be employed for the frame of the / 
building, there is no other way by which they could get in. 
If it should be thought desirable to cover the glass at 
• Nos. 44, 46, 48, 50, 52. 
