The housekeeper's companion

All through the autumn and winter months, about twenty or thirty birds will live very happily together, in a cage from three to four feet long, and two feet high and wide. This should be made of tin wire, as brass is apt to corrode, and communicate its poisoned green rust to the birds, when they rub their beaks against it; the iron rust is very good for them. The wood may be either mahogany or varnished deal. The arrangements for seed and water should be carefully attended to. If the former is put into the cage, the bird-hoppers are best to use, because the seed is kept clean, and only falls down as the birds peck and scatter away the husks beneath. A good plan is to have the seed and water in long, covered boxes outside the cage, with china or glass trays to take in and out of them. These can be kept perfectly sweet and clean, and the birds cannot make the seed or water dirty. Objections are made to the old-fashioned bird-glasses, because they are sometimes carelessly put into the wires which hold them, so that they slip aside, and the poor little birds cannot get at the water; but no provision for their comfort can succeed if carelessness be allowed at all. We do not advocate their use, however, for if they are very full the seed or water often gets spilt into the cage, and, if not, the birds have to stretch their little necks painfully to reach their food. Sometimes, too, a young bird will contrive in some mysterious fashion to get into the glass, and, having got in, cannot extricate itself. Nothing looks prettier at first than a fountain in the middle of the cage; but it becomes so dirty in a few hours that it is not well to use it. A bath, wired round like the cage, should be made to hang on the doorway, and the birds will go in and out and splash about in this, with the greatest delight. It must be taken away when they have all had a good washing, in cold weather especially, as some of them will go into the bath again and again, and get completely chilled. In winter the water must have the chill taken off, and whenever the sun shines they may have a bath safely. They must always have sand spread on the board at the bottom of the cage; and the coarse gravelly sand is best for them. It is a good plan to have a second board and two sets of perches for a large cage; this gives opportunity for washing and drying them thoroughly, and when the board gets wetted by the splashing of the birds, it can be dried before it is returned to the cage. Of course the perches must be made to take in and out of the cage; they should be round and smooth like a bamboo. A swing suspended from the centre is a source of pleasure to the birds, and if the cage has a domed top, looks very pretty underneath it. They much enjoy having a pot of mignonette or of chickweed put in; and all perch eagerly about it, and soon devour every leaf and flower. No plant that would be injurious to them must be put either in or close to the cage, for they are sure to eat the leaves, and the beauty of the plant is destroyed in a few hours. A fir branch put into the cage occasionally gives them a good deal of amusement, and seems to do them no harm; but it is very soon reduced to a bare pole. Plantain is very good winter food for them, and they enjoy picking it from the stalk.