INTRODUCTION. 
The object of the present work is to indicate, in a condensed form, 
the most satisfactory methods of acquiring, housing, feeding, and 
studying bird-life in a state of captivity. Each branch of this vast 
subject is briefly dealt with in a separate chapter, so that it can be 
easily referred to, and the student may have no excuse for not making 
himself master of so much qs I am able to tell him. 
The fourteen chapters discuss cages and aviaries, the selection of 
suitable birds as companions in captivity, feeding, hand-rearing, 
sexing, preparation for breeding, scientific study of bird-life, illnesses 
and wounds, showing and nest- building, taming, mule-breeding, 
teaching birds to talk or whistle, catching, and birds’-nesting. 
On all these subjects we still have very much to learn ; but 
unless we begin by consulting the work already done, there will be 
no likelihood of an advance ; if also we keep all that we learn to 
ourselves, our lives are of little use to others, and our labour is in 
vain. All new facts are worth recording ; do not prevent others 
from benefiting by them. 
