have each an aperture near their respective bases, as in Plate IV., furnished on one side apiece with a pair of small "hinges" shall I call them? like figure 11, into which slides a bent wire 10, fastened to the small separate door 13, to do duty as a hook, as represented by the dotted line in number 12—the drawing in Plate IV. at the right-hand side of the cage in its dismantled condition, preparatory to being cleaned. These secondary doors are intended only to be adjusted when the food vessels are being removed from their places to be filled, and so on, the aperture would otherwise be left unguarded for the watchful, keen, quick, observant little tenant to make good his escape through,-besides in many ways, for other purposes, a pair or so of superfluous doors with their facilities for putting on at will, are always useful at need, and easier to have arranged for permanently in the first instance, than added afterwards, where the cage has been made without them at the outset. In an ordinary cage, as number 1 in Plate IV., the permanent door 19 might be four inches square, and number 20 in the same illustration, as large as you can afford, the greater the better for your own convenience; but I would recommend its also being a square. As to the two provisional doors, to fill up the apertures and secure them against the necessary removal of the food vessels, and Dick's consequent inevitable exit, four inches high and two wide will be ample accommodation for all purposes of his, as he will merely use them to pass through to and from his bath and seed. 4. The two or three extra partitions

I

necessary for an aviary, or moderate sized cage, where

more than one bird is kept.

These too, I show by one

sample only, for the sake of economising space, namely, in figure 3, Plate III., and may be made with or without an aperture, such as is in figure 5 in the same plate, and also in Plate V., figures 1 and 2, and in Plates II. and VI., according to whether or not they are wanted for the breeding or merely an ordinary cage. If with, as in the former requirement, two inches wide by four high is quite sufficient size, as any grown songster can easily pass through such an opening to the assistance of the gapingly expectant youngster below, awaiting him; whereas, being placed at the top of the partition, it will effectually hinder any enterprising young fledgling's attempt to force his entrance where it is in nowise wanted, namely, amongst the callow brood his successors, nestling in the adjoining compartment, and where, for his part, he will always show himself only too ready at all times to volunteer his presence if opportunity be afforded him, as "baby Dick," like every other exacting" infant," is partial to promiscuous petting, and personal parental attention and notice, and dearly loves company, as well as to make a huge fuss over himself; and if successful once in absorbing it all to his own share, will not fail to repeat the flattering experiment. In "double breeding cages," as figures 1 and 2 in Plate V., do not have any aperture in your partitions, as thereby wrong parents will get into each other's domain, and a general row" become the consequence! Place the fledglings, able to shift partially for themselves, that is of course

06

the thirteen-day old youngsters, in the middle compartment therefore all together, from both nests alike that is, and they will be indiscriminately attended to in turn by the four parent birds. I would recommend too, that figures 3 and 4, in Plate V., in other words, the china vessels containing the parents' seeds and the chicks' soft food, be put at 5 and 6, so that "papa Dick" may teach "baby Dick," by personal practice, the quicker "to do for himself," by the force of imitation, in picking up the stray bits shot over into his portion of the world, as he sees his father do before him; and besides, it is not wise to permit a fledgling free, unrestricted ingress to a large volume of water, such as would be contained in figures 7 and 8, in Plate V., because he would certainly drown himself, carrying out his small theories of always mimicking his seniors in everything. For small birds, like small children, have wills and fancies of their own, and proportionately equally little reflective powers to discern right from wrong, till taught better by age or experience, and their elders' training.

The five essential points in our model cage, of which we must now treat, are the food and water vessels, in each of the diagrams, and separated for the sake of distinction and to make them the clearer, in Plates III., IV., and V., figures respectively 12 (united by dotted lines for packing purposes) 3, and 8, also drawn in dotted lines to demonstrate how they look when unhooked for cleaning. These seed fountains, you must remark, are not the ordinary bird baths hung on, as they