Our  Canaries 
21 
is  carried  out,  this  cage  should  be  broken  up  and  burnt  as  soon  as  the  birds  have 
sufficiently  recovered  to  be  safely  re-introduced  into  the  room,  or  succumbed,  as 
the  case  may  be — and  the  latter  termination,  it  must  be  admitted,  is  the  one  most 
likely  to  occur.  To  attempt  to  cleanse  and  purify  an  old  cage  after  containing  a 
septic  fever  patient,  for  example,  is  the  merest  folly. 
A  QUESTION  OF  SUPERIORITY. 
But  we  have  gone  far  astray  from  the  subject  of  the  comparative  merits  and 
disadvantages  of  the  three  commonest  types  of  breeding  cages,  and  must  now  hark 
back,  having  doubtless  written  sufficient  to  show  that  the  portability  of  a  single 
compartment  cage  in  certain  circumstances  gives  it  a  superiority  over  all  others, 
which  fully  condones  all  its  shortcomings.  Next  in  order  the  "  double,"  or  two 
compartment,  breeding  cage  is  most  generally  useful.  It  retains  something  of  the 
conveniences  of  the  single,  but  being  twice  the  length  is  naturally  not  quite  so 
portable.  Still  it  is  sufficiently  of  this  character  as  to  be  almost  as  readily  and 
easily  dealt  with  in  all  respects  as  a  single  cage,  the  greatest  of  its  demerits, 
perhaps,  being  that  it  requires  more  space  than  many  novices  can  afford  to  give 
to  their  hobby,  and  at  the  same  time  devote  a  whole  cage  to  each  pair  of 
birds. 
The  advantage  of  this  double  cage  is  the  easy  method  of  dealing  with 
practically  all  the  little  troubles  which  are  apt  to  arise  during  the  breeding  season, 
such  as  cocks  interfering  too  much  with  the  nesting  arrangements  of  the  hens ; 
driving  them  off  the  nest  whilst  sitting  ;  hens  plucking  young  when  about  nesting  the 
second  time,  and  so  forth.  At  the  beginning  of  the  season  when  it  is  purposed 
to  adopt  this  method  and  devote  a  full  cage  to  each  pair  of  birds,  the  cock  is 
placed  in  one  compartment  and  the  hen  in  the  adjoining  one  of  the  same  cage, 
the  wire  slide  is  inserted,  and  this  enables  each  pair  to  have  unlimited  opportunities 
for  forming  an  attachment,  and  hob-nobbing  generally,  short  of  actual  mating. 
"THE  SPRING-TIME,  THE  PRETTY  RING-TIME." 
As  the  season  advances  the  birds  will  be  observed  to  devote  their  attention 
to  each  other  more  and  more,  day  by  day;  the  cocks  singing  violently  and  going 
through  all  the  ludicrous  antics  of  love-making  before  the  slide,  whilst  the  hens  look 
on  from  the  other  side,  flapping  and  twittering  their  applause  and  approval ;  and, 
anon,  popping  down  briskly  to  the  wires  in  response  to  a  call  from  the  cock  to  take 
a  choice  morsel  of  food  from  his  beak.  A  pretty  prelude  to  the  ceremony  which 
is  to  follow  when  the  time  has  reached  its  proper  fulness  to  permit  them  to  set  to 
work  and  consummate  their  fond  desires.  All  that  there  remains  is  to  withdraw 
the  wire  slide. 
Later  on,  when  the  hen  has  begun  to  sit  upon  her  eggs,  if  her  lord  and  master 
disapproves  of  this  quiet,  stolid  inactivity,  and  tries  to  beat  her  off  the  nest,  then 
he  is  once  more  relegated  to  the  one  compartment,  and  a  wood  slide  inserted  in 
