Having purchased a bird, the first consi-gn deration is, which is the best kind of bird cages.

Of wooden cages those made of mahogany are decidedly the best, as they are less likely to harbor insects than any other. If soft wood is the material it should invariably have two or three coats of paint over it. Green is the best color; but the wires of a cage should never be painted green, as the metal being non-absorbent, the color will loosen and peel off, and being pecked at and eaten by the bird will cause its death. Wire cages of bell or pagoda shape are mostly used in this country, and are superior to wooden cages, being easily cleaned, and are light and elegant in appearance. The bottom of a wire cage has a projecting rim or ledge around it, which keeps the dirt and seeds thrown out by the bird from making a litter; and as it is simply fastened to the upper part by hooks and catches, it is easily removed for the purpose of being cleaned. Care must be taken that the bottom is securely hooked to the top, for many a bird has been lost by its dropping off after the cage was hung up, and thus releasing the bird. The receptacles for food and water in the wire cage are very safe and convenient; barrels open on one side are attached to the side, not hung below, and glass cups set in them, and the open side turned inward.

For young birds, which are apt to hurt themselves against the wires by fluttering and sporting about, a Net Cage should be provided. This can easily be made of an old common cage out of which the wires have been taken, and a covering of fine net substituted.

What are called School Cages are sometimes used for a number of birds. These are boxes having a wire front, and solid back and sides, divided into a number of compartments, each of which is tenanted by a single bird, to which access may be obtained by means of a little door at the back of its dormitory. There may be several tiers of these apartments, and a single sliding bottom and feeding trough does for each tier, going through the whole length: thus, where it is desirable to economize space, they may rise one above another like a nest of drawers, and form a sort of bird-barracks. A single preceptor, a good lark or nightingale, may be the drill sergeant for the whole company of occupants, however numerous; the little pupils, not being able to see each other, will be all the more likely to give due attention to the music lessons.

A Store Cage, with wooden back and sides, wire front, and cloth or calico top, made about two feet long, and six inches high and wide, will be found useful to put newly caught birds into ; having no height to fly, they cannot well hurt themselves.

Hospital Cages, in which to place sick or wounded birds, are very necessary where several birds are kept. A good plan is to take the wires entirely out of a cage from eight to twelve inches square, and sew round the frame, both top and sides, a tight-strained piece of canvas or flannel. The floor should be covered with bran or coarse oatmeal, this being cooling as well as soft; everything of wool is objectionable, on account of the fibre or hairs which twist round the claws, and if not removed will tighten and cut off the toes.

The perches should be movable, that they may be taken out and cleaned. If the bird's leg is wounded, the perches should all be removed from the cage; but if it is the wing that is affected, one perch would be advisable.

Breeding Cages are best made of mahogany or some polished wood, with one end as well as the front of wire. Drawers are objectionable, as the grating of removing them is injurious to young birds, but the best way is to lay a piece of oil cloth or stiff brown paper on the floor of the cage already covered with sand; the paper can be drawn out, cleaned, and replaced. "Wooden boxes for the nests can be hung at least half way up, and material for the nests, such as raw cotton or hair, supplied.

Glass Cages are bright and gay; the material is capable of being wrought into beautiful forms and combinations, making a delightful miniature crystal palace. But though elegant and easily kept clean, yet there is danger attending them, as the slightest chip from the glass might produce death, and if the bird can reach the putty, he will eat it and die.

The square or oblong wooden cages are simple and common, and the best to hang up in an aviary. They are convenient when made eighteen inches high and wide, and just the width of a window, in which it is very nice to place them. If one end has glass sides for the bath, the amusement of watching the birds will be very great. A cage like this will hold two dozen birds. In drawing-rooms it would look well to have the wood match the furniture or the window frame; whatever is the wood it must be solid, with no veneers or inlaying in any part that the birds can get at.

These cages can have an eating-room at one end, with the walls wholly or partly of glass outside the wire to keep the seed in, or they may be supplied with food boxes. I think, however, the two shut-in apartments, one at each end for food and bathing, is a good arrangement. A long, well-polished round perch should run along the front and back of the cage, the front next the room particularly, because if the birds are tame they will probably, when they want anything, come and sit in one long line along the front, looking at their mistress, and mak ing their meaning generally quite clear to her.

Nothing adds so much to the birds' delight, as well as to their beauty, as to have a sort of shelf about five inches wide, on which a box full of roses, myrtles, and other plants may stand, forming a hedge of foliage between them and the window.

Perches should be round and polished, fitting into niches or between the wires. Polished deal or maple is the best material, after cane, which is at once a natural round perch for the bird's foot to grasp, and perfectly light and easily cleaned. The perches should be kept perfectly clean ; after washing them with yellow soap and water every day, they should never be returned to the cage until perfectly dry. They should not, however, be dried too quickly by heat as that would warp them. They should be carefully arranged into the cage, so as not to be just over each other. A good way is to have one across the front, another across the back, another higher up, further in the cage, and another quite near the top. The birds like the high perches best, and the higher they roost the better. Another advisable plan in bell cages is to put a perch from the water to the seed cup, another higher up, also across the cage.

The cage will need some attention every day, and twice a week the bottom should be detached and washed, being careful to dry it thoroughly, and cover it with fine river sand, or gravel, which can be purchased at the bird stores, or procured from the shore of the river. It is essential to the health of the bird, and must not be marine sand, as salt is injurious.

The practice of hanging birds out at a window in a small cage open on all sides, and so fully exposed alike to the burning rays of the sun and the chilling winds, cannot be too strongly reprehended. Great suffering must be at times endured by the little prisoners, whose exposure, when in a wild state, to the atmospheric influences, is counteracted by the exercise of limb and muscle, which it is unable to take in the cage ; this, therefore, should always be covered at the top when the sun is shining very brightly, and muffled at the side on which the wind sets with green baize, or other thick material, in dull and gusty weather. In wet weather the cage should not be put out at all, except now and then during a gentle summer shower, which is likely to be succeeded by sunshine.

Leaving cage birds to the care of servants cannot be too strongly reprehended; by these they are generally considered as a trouble and a nuisance, and their destruction, if it be not hastened, is seldom guarded against, for "the sooner they are out of the way the better." Let the lady feed and tend her pet canary, or other sweet songster, herself regularly ; ay, let her clean out its cage, too, or, at least, see that it is done, and so repay in some slight degree the debt of gratitude which she owes the bird, kept a prisoner for her gratification.

These remarks have been forced from us by a keen sense of the wrongs and injuries to which our feathered friends are constantly subjected, arising from an observation of the vast amount of unnecessary suffering entailed upon them by carelessness more than heartlessness. "We are persuaded that many of the tears which have been shed over dead birds, have proceeded as much from contri-tion for neglect, as from sorrow for the loss sustained; and our fair readers will, we trust, pardon us if we remind them in the words of Thomas Hood, that,

"Evil is wrought by want of thought, As much as by want of heart."

The cage should never, in winter, be left in a room without fire.