CAGE AND SINGING BlRliS, 
91 
that can be closed at pleasure, that the sitting birds, and the 
j young- when hatched, may not be disturbed by too many 
visits from feathered friends or enemies, some of whom might 
feel disposed to use them rather roughly, if they did not 
utterly destroy and gobble up the poor little fledglings. 
The following' concise and simple directions may suffice 
for those who desire to breed canaries in a more careful and 
scientific way. This work can always be most successfully 
carried on in the country, where the air is purer, and the 
aspect of all things more fresh, and pleasant, and congenial 
to bird nature than in town ; nevertheless, a large proportion 
of our best and finest song birds are born and reared in 
brick-and-mortar wildernesses, and for this purpose a room 
at the top of the house is generally chosen, because most 
airy and open to the sunshine ; during the summer the win- 
dow should be left open, with a net before it sufficiently 
strong enough to keep in the birds, and also to keep out the 
cats, which have a fancy for roaming on the house-tops, and 
a still stronger fancy for canary flesh. The room ehould 
have perches just about large enough for the feet of the 
birds to grasp, projecting here and there from the walls at 
different heights, and young fir trees (if growing in tubs or 
pots, so much the better), placed in the corners and elsewhere ; 
the floor should be well sanded, and kept clean, and a good 
supply of rape and canary seed, and fresh water, in appro- 
priate vessels, constantly provided. The birds may be 
allowed to fly about together, until the cold weather begins 
to set in, when you should begin to think of tenants for your 
breeding cages, which you have already fixed to the walls 
just high enough to be seen into without difficulty; then 
choose the birds which you are desirous of mating, and put 
into each cage two hens and a cock — bearing in mind the 
dii'ections which we have already given about pairing-. 
After living sociably together thus through the winter, they 
will be more likely, as the season of love approaches, to form 
a matrimonial alliance, than if they were then introduced to 
each other for the first time. You must watch their pro- 
ceedings, and if there should seem a likelihc'od of their 
doing this too early, that is before April, the cock had better 
be separated from the hens for a time. Or the young brood 
may come in inclement weather and so perish. When the 
