BILLY BOY’S WORKSHOP

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1931, Page 8 (Supplement)

BILLY BOY’S WORKSHOP

. ' MAKING A BIRD-CAGE.

This week, 'by special request, I wafit to/tell.-you how to make cage suitable for eno dr two canaries, or other small cage birds. You will see by the diagrams that the cage has a wire front and sides, and. a sloping wooden roof. The 'back and 'bottom are also of wood.

The front of the cage is built up as ■shown in diagram A, the two wooden uprights being half an inch square, and the other wodden parts three-eighths of an inch thick and of varying widths as indicated. These parts must be nailed together with fine wire nails, after the wires are in position. The wires are straight lengths of bird-cage wire, and'for the. front of the cage you. will require twenty-one pieces ten inches long. Five of these cut in halves, make the short lengths above the opening B. Drill holes half-an-inch apart through the centre bar C for the. long wires to pass through. The holes in. the top and bottom -bars, to fake the ends of the wires, need oply be three-eighths of an inch deep. ■ v ; The two. sides which ’ are ’ exactly alike •have) sloping wooden top rails as shown at ±>, and openings for the seed and water boxes. The framework for the sides is the same width and thickness as that for the front, and’, the wires, which are of varying lengths,_ pass through holes in the centre rail in. the same manner.

•For the bottom of the cage, exit a piece of quarter-inch wood, sixteen and a half inches long and ten and a half inches wide. This can 'be screwed to the front and sides when these are nailed together. The back is of plywood, cut flush- with the sides, and screwed to the back uprights of the. sides. The roof alsq is of plywood, cut to size to allow about 'half an ipch to project at the sides and front. Fix the roof in position with small brass screws. Make the tray E from odd pieces of quarter-inch wood, with a piece of plywood for the bottom, and screw two small wooden knobs into the front. The door is made with two short pieces of wood and some short lengths of wire, the hinges being formed of fine wire staples. You can make the little food boxes, F, out of pieces of fretwood. Each box should have two bent pieces of wire fixed at the front, as shown, for holding it to the sides of the cage. To complete the cage, three perches will be required; one long-one resting on the middle rails, and a short one in front of each feeding box. Make these perches from one-half by three-eighths inch wood, and well round the tops as shown in diagram G. I hope you will remember that wild birds of any sort must not be kept in a Billy Boy’s birdcage! The Hut; Carpenter. . OF THE LOAF.* Words, like people, seem to change with time. Long ago, the word lady meant a “server of bread,” for it was derived from two words, meaning loaf and help. > ■ ' The “server of bread’’ gave loaves to the poor, and also distributed food in her own household. The keeper of the loaf, or the lord, supplied the 'bread, but it was the duty of the server to see that it was wisely distributed.

. On certain days of the week, the “server of the loaf,” or lady, would give to the needy as many loaves as she could spare; and according to the way in which she managed her food supply was she known as a good or indifferent lady, or server of the loaf. ; —