INTRODUCTION. 
HABITATION OF CAGE OR CHAMBER BIRDS. 
Birds which are kept only on account of their beauty, or for 
their animation and vivacity, are generally kept best in a room 
where they can run or fly freely about, and where they can 
resort at night for repose, to a large cage of many compart¬ 
ments, or to one or more fir trees. But larger birds should 
have an apartment expressly appropriated to them, as their 
faeces smell unpleasantly in a dwelling room, whence also they 
require constant cleaning. Smaller birds may be allowed to 
run freely about, having a small tree or a cage hung up for 
them to roost in. With this degree of liberty, many birds sing 
better than when confined in a cage. 
Cleanliness is in every respect very important in keeping 
birds, for they are not only thereby preserved for many years 
but it keeps them constantly healthy and cheerful; hence it is 
necessary that the cage should be cleaned at least once a-week, 
and birds which run about upon the ground, should have the 
sand renewed frequently; the perches also of such as use them 
should be carefully cleaned. If this be not attended to, the 
birds will become sickly, and will sutler from lame feet, gout, 
and other maladies, terminating in the loss of their toes, as all 
must have experienced who have been accustomed to keep 
birds, and have neglected cleansing them. In cleaning their 
feet, it is very requisite that the bird should have them dipped 
in water before the dirt is removed; for if this be not done, the 
skin, to which the dirt closely adheres, comes off with it, which 
renders the bird not merely lame, but also attracts to the part 
all the unhealthy humors generated by their unnatural mode 
of living. 
It is in the feet indeed that cage or chamber birds chiefly 
suffer, and they must be daily examined to see that nothing 
gets entangled about them, as hair thus twisted will frequently 
cut very deep, and in the course of a few days, that portion of 
the foot or toe, so tied up, will dry up and fall off. Very great 
