42 Godfrey Davis—Breeding the Striated Finch or White-hacked Munia


carefully made as if it were a fine bit of furniture. But, of course, the

cage need not be of teak wood or joiner-made and teak wood is a

disadvantage as it is so heavy, and one essential quality of this cage

is that it should be light, so that it can easily be moved from the

verandah into the garden and back again. It can be made of pine and

“ rough carpentry ”, the woodwork protected with solignum or creosote.

The cage I designed, then, was merely a wooden framework, 30 in.

long and 20 in. wide and 20 in. high. The uprights were 1 in. square,

the cross-pieces 1 X f in., and the door frames 1 in. deep and f in.

wide. The legs of the cage were 1J in. long. One of the ideas in this

cage was to be in the roof. The nesting-box, I thought, ought to be

inside the cage because of rats and other things, and it ought to be

possible to put the nesting-box in and take it out without a struggle.

I am not particularly troubled about birds escaping because I have

always found that small birds like Munias come back and wait to be

“ let in So the roof was made, not flat, but with a gable to its apex

9 in. high, and one side of the roof lifted up : in fact one side of the

roof consisted of three doors hinged from the ridge. Each of the three

doors was in fact 9J in. wide and 11J in. high measured along the

slope, but that was only because my Sikh carpenter made each door

the same width as the others and fitted the three perfectly into the

side of the sloping roof. In fact I do not think three doors in the roof

are necessary. I should in future have only two doors ; one 10 in.

wide at one end through which I would put in and take out the nesting-

box and the other door I should make to fill up the rest of the opening ;

but I would have all one side of the roof to open so that all parts of

the cage could be thoroughly washed and scoured. Also in the past

I had found it difficult to put in bunches of seeding grass or really

good-sized earthenware saucers for the birds to bathe in, so I decided

the doors should be large. Therefore, one end of the cage I made all

doors ; two at the bottom-half which lifted up, hinged from the wooden

cross-bar fixed half-way up the side, so that if necessary both doors

could be lifted open at once and bundles of seeding grass could be

pushed in ; and two doors at the top half, but these were hinged on

the uprights of the framework so as to open outwards, and these doors

were to allow the birds to pass from one cage to another. As a mafter



