BIRDS:

THEIR CAGES AND THEIR KEEP.

CHAPTER I.

ESSENTIALS TO BIRD-KEEPING.

No one who has not a kind heart, thoughtful head, observant eye, and gentle hand has the least right to keep birds.

A gentle hand need not necessarily be soft and white : many hardened and roughened with labour are capable on occasion of softening into delicacy and soothing, light, loving touches, when prompted by the kindly, honest heart; while others, again, of purest, most delicate colour and form, are so inflexible and unsympathetic that they fall like hard irresponsive wood on whatsoever they touch.

Patience, leisure, space and money are also four essentials to successful bird-rearing-but the thoughtful head, careful of daily wants, the kind heart, willing to endure slight temporary inconvenience for the sake of a poor, helpless, dependent creature, and the quick eye, imme

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diately observant of the alternations in health, climate, and conditions of its existence, (such as the suitability, variety, quantity and quality of its food, and the shape and size of its cage,) will, together with the ready hand, be fertile enough in resource to repair any deficiency in these four secondary requisites.

There are two distinct methods pursued by fanciers in regard to the management of birds; one, the most general, to give it sufficiently little attention just to keep the spark of life awake in a long-protracted course of systematic filth, disease, cold, heat, starvation and neglect; the other, to make simple existence such a boundless delight, that your tiny protégé appears to have learnt the secret of perpetual motion as well as that of endless song.

No rational being ever dreams of tying up a starving dog in a kennel dirty as a pigstye, with a bone beyond his reach, and no water available except to gaze at and pine for wistfully; neither is a horse so served; yet these are but the "brute creation," "dumb animals," "inferior creatures," and so on. The dog and the horse possess defensive weapons that man fears, whereby they can avenge their injuries on their aggrievers; they are more useful; and fear and self-interest are, after all, the cardinal springs of the machinery of life, in spite of everything moralists may say to the contrary, and are in a measure the cause of the superior treatment these quadrupeds receive. A helpless, defenceless, "useless" bird appeals to protection and pity; to the heart, not to the ambition, and in nine cases out of ten is condemned to barbarous neglect,

because only considered in the light of an animated bundle of gay feathers containing a voice-a suitable decoration for an uncomfortable, showy cage; an amusement which, when it becomes a bore by familiarization, is unscrupulously left "to take care of itself," and die or live as best it may! Granted that a bird does possess a lower order of instinct and narrower sphere of usefulness than the dog or horse, what then? To whom little is given can much be required? Birds and beasts are alike endowed with nerves, the seat of feeling; with instinct, though in a less degree, and in the power of enjoying life or suffering in it. Civilized nations have societies for the "prevention of cruelty to animals." If a boy destroys a butterfly, spins cockchafers, or wings flies, "right-thinking," "kind-hearted" people remonstrate, and save the victim if possible; yet these same benevolent souls may themselves keep birds in the last stage of neglect for months together, and nobody lift a finger in their behalf. Are birds then of less value, less sensible of pain, even lower in the scale of animal life, than mere flies and beetles ? A merciful man is merciful to his beast, why not to his bird? No, reader, use your common sense, think of your feathered pet as you do of your dog or horse, namely, as a created, sensitive being, with a body to suffer, feelings to hurt, and frequently, brains to appreciate his condition, and you cannot go very far wrong in your treatment of him.

CHAPTER II.

CLEANLINESS, AND WHEN TO CLEAN.

IN the preceding chapter I touched on the usual popular and most short-sighted manner of bird-keeping. I propose now to lay down a few directions as to the best and the necessary plan for preserving our feathered friends in health and beauty.

Never forget that intense cleanliness is almost more of an absolute necessity to the happiness, nay very existence, of chamber birds, than even seed and water. A person scrupulous in the purity of the details of the cage in which his pet's life is passed, is not at the same time one to forget the supply of its occupant's daily wants. Do not rest content with merely SCRAPING the tray and perches occasionally, neglecting to cleanse the wires, roof, seed-stands, or any other part with water and "elbow grease," for the trouble or time thus temporarily "saved" will inevitably be doubled when your poor suffering victim is thrown upon your tender mercies, to be nursed back into health lost through your failure in this duty. More time is uselessly "lost" repairing the damage caused by selfish neglect, than can possibly be "wasted"