upper mandible should it project beyond the lower one, &c., &c. He is yours. You may do just what you will with him.

During the warm season, you will of course have your pet as much as possible in the garden. Place him in the centre of some over-arching bower of roses or jessamine. Here, suspended from the semicircle by an iron hook, he will see you as well as hear you. You may then put him through his exercise, either by the voice, finger, or foot. The further you are from him, the better the fun. He will sing all the louder, and dance all the more grotesquely. Should there be a number of birds in the family, keep them remotely distant from each other when in the garden.

All cage-birds love their liberty; that is, they like to feel free. Be sure, therefore, at breakfast-time, to open the doors of their dwellings. They will soon come out, and make themselves perfectly at home with you. It is for you to make them love you. I am exceedingly puzzled to receive so many letters as I do, especially from the fair sex, asking how they shall tame their birds. Gentle creatures! you must have too mean an opinion of yourselves to imagine there can be any difficulty in the matter. Women, birds, flowers-why, they are naturally associated.

BIRDS, CATS, AND RATS.

BY W. KIDD.

FEW readers but will smile, when they see so curious a collection of unlikely animals as birds, cats, and rats classified under one head. But the readers of the previous paper will like to hear an account of a sad catastrophe that once befell my collection of birds. The narrative may prove a warning against similar dangers.

Wherever birds are in large number there will assuredly be

gathered together cats, mice, and rats. The first of these are not only troublesome-frightening the birds by day and night—but they often bolt through the glass windows and make a savoury meal in the aviary, themselves unseen. They then retire through the opening they have made, noiselessly; and I once lost, through one of these said "openings," a number of songsters worth three guineas a-piece. Retributive justice afterwards, however, overtook most of the offenders, both cats and rats.

In repeating my sad tale, very much in the same words in which at the time I made known my terrible loss, I leave my readers to conceive, if they can, my feelings of sorrow on the woful termination of so brilliant and auspicious a beginning of bird keeping.

For more than a quarter of a century I have been an amateur or "fancier" of song birds. I built, at starting, a large, commodious aviary, and fitted it up in a style worthy of its inhabitants-the agréments of well-polished looking and toilet-glasses, ever-flowing fountains, and leafy foliage, not being wanting to render their house an "ornithological palace." I am ashamed to say what it cost me. My collection has been noted as one of the most select of its kind extant; comprising nightingales and foreign song birds, and including specimens of nearly every chorister of the English woods and forests.

The extreme number of birds my aviary has contained at one and the same time has been 366; it having been a weak point with me to boast of "having more birds in my possession than there were days in a year." Alas! I cannot say so now!

Built on a most picturesque spot, and arched over by a number of lofty fir-trees growing immediately in its rear (in Ravenscourt Park), nature and art vied with each other to render the personnel of my aviary unexceptionably beautiful. All went well for a time, until after the heavy rains of autumn (1849), when an army of rats quitted their usual haunts and unceremoniously "billeted" them

selves upon me. These murderers first made their appearance at night, through holes eaten in various parts of the floor; and every morning I as carefully nailed over the said holes flattened pieces of zinc. This, for a night or two, kept the marauders at bay. However, they very soon re-appeared, until at last my flooring was almost completely "tesselated" with zinc. Not imagining for some time that they came to prey upon the birds, I placed in their - runs Harrison's Pills" and other baits. All these, however, remained untouched; and the frightful diminution of my feathered friends, now apparent day by day, soon convinced me of the awful extent of my misfortune.

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The climax was soon reached. On opening the aviary door one morning a scene of devastation presented itself which I will not, indeed cannot, attempt to describe. Suffice it to say, my eye fell instinctively on a large hole in the centre of the floor, which had been gnawed through an immensely thick protective piece of wood; and on counting the number of inmates, I found them-just eleven! To remove these, and in a fit of desperation to convert their late habitation into a green-house, was the work of a short half-hour.

The cunning of these rats had been immense. They must have carried on their operations of gnawing while mounted one on the back of another (a system of theirs I have before now heard of); for the flooring was laid on wooden sleepers, and the distance from the ground below to the flooring above was at least eight inches. To exterminate these monsters was my full determination; the more especially as I had in the immediate vicinity of the aviary nearly 100 head of poultry, many of them the choicest gold-spangled bantam breed of the late Sir John Sebright, and the finest specimens of the gold-spangled Hamburgh. I was told by a knowing neighbour, by way of comfort, that I might fully expect some morning to find the entrails of one or all of these torn out by the rats-a pleasant prospect!

When I published (in the Gardeners' Chronicle') the irreparable loss I had sustained, I felt sure that many would sympathize with me, and assist me to the utmost of their ability in placing the enemy hors de combat. Nor did I reckon without my host. From all parts of the United Kingdom I received letters of condolence, many of them conveying hints invaluable for my guidance in carrying on the war of extermination with certainty and despatch, and emphatically requesting that the "result" of my proceedings might be made publicly known. For the benefit of all who may hereafter fall victims to the rapacity of rats, I will now, as briefly as may be, lay before them my tactics, and explain how I finally gained a decisive victory.

Instead of commencing hostilities at once, on discovering the extent of the ravages committed, I gave encouragement to the enemy by throwing in his way divers articles of food, such as dripping, lard, meat, bones, fish, and other dainties. This gave him confidence, and threw him off his guard; so that he revelled unsuspiciously among all the good things of this life, while I was secretly plotting his déstruction. I took care meantime to secure all the hen-houses, and shut the inmates up every night, to protect them from their blood-thirsty foe. The great field-day at length arrived. I devoted it entirely to strategy

I completed all my arrangements before the hour of dusk, impatiently waiting for the rising sun of the morrow. Poison was my weapon; fresh herrings and sprats were my aides-de-camp. The poison was common carbonate of barytes ground to an impalpable powder. An incision was first made in the backs of the herrings, and the carbonate of barytes well rubbed in. The parts were then, as artistically as possible, reunited. The sprats being smaller than the herrings, and more plastic, were pierced through their sides with a sharp piece of deal wood. Had a knife, a fork, or the human hand touched them, all would have been vain! The

barytes was then "drilled in," and other sprats, not poisoned, were placed above and below them, so that suspicion was disarmed. It should be borne in mind that the barytes is without taste and without smell; hence its great value.

When the preparations were all completed, I stationed my fishy allies in every part of the garden and shrubberies-some under trees, some in flower-pots, some hidden by a brick, others partly imbedded in the garden walks. They "did their bidding" right well. On coming downstairs the morning following, I found the enemy had fallen into the snare. There was a serious diminution of the provisions furnished for their repast. I had won the day. In two days and two nights I effectually routed the whole army. I was left master of the field.

If it be urged by some, as perhaps it will be, that I was cruel, consider the aggravation-an unprovoked and brutal attack upon a large, affectionate family of sleeping innocents, who were ruthlessly snatched from their beds at midnight, torn limb from limb, and their agonized bodies crunched-ay, crunched is the wordbetween the fangs of murderous assassins.

Let me add that all aviaries should have their basement on shingle, or small gravel stones. Rats would then find themselves "out of court." I learnt this lesson-too late.

A MAGPIE STORY.

The

THAT man should be attracted by glittering or gaudy articles scarcely surprises us. At all times and in all nations, man has evinced a predilection for what the French call parure. savage must have his ornaments; so must the magnate of a mighty empire. To the one and to the other these toys are alike valuable, be they in the one case a string of shells, or in the other a tiara of