New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All TradesBeard, Daniel Carter
General
New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All Trades
Beard, Daniel Carter
Amusements; Sports
can, if desired, be made very neat by the following method: Cut some
tin into strips of the proper dimensions, then fold the strips on their
centre, lengthwise. Punch a series of holes by placing the folded
strips of tin on a block of wood and driving a nail through. Slip the
folded tin over the exposed edges of the wire-netting, and sew it in
place by threading a fine wire through the holes. Bind the edges of
the door in the same manner, then put a loop of wire on the door for a
hasp, and a smaller one on the cage near the edge of the doorway for a
staple, and the door may be fastened with a peg of wood or a nail; or,
better still, wire a hook on the door in place of a hasp, and arrange
it so as to hook into the loop on the cage.
It is often handy to have doors in the roof of a cage, as in the roofs
of the gnawers’ cages, over the rabbit runway, in the illustration.
The Doors for the Runway
to the rabbit-house are on top, and open like a door to a bin, as shown
in the illustration and in Fig. 26. While we are at the rodents’, or
gnawers’, quarters, it is well to remember certain peculiarities about
the habits of these animals. Rats, mice, squirrels, and their kind,
will invariably seek a crack, angle or corner to commence work for a
hole; knowing this, it is well to protect all such places by pieces
of metal or tin, and none of the little fellows will make his escape,
unless the door is left open.
Rabbits will seldom gnaw out, but if they have an opportunity they will
tunnel out.
To prevent diggers from escaping, allow your wire-netting to extend a
foot and a half underground, below the footboard.
A Reptile House
need not be more than three feet high. It is not shown in the
illustration, but may be built as described and shown in Figs. 23, 24,
and 25, after which a roof of wire-cloth must be added.
Into this house you put your turtles, frogs, toads, lizards, and
snakes, and as most, if not all, of these require water in considerable
quantity, it is well to have a tank for their use. But as every boy
does not know how to build the tank, he may learn by following the
directions in the following chapter, describing a back-yard fish-pond.
Be careful to set the tank level and pack it around with good hard
earth. It is well to sod the ground on three sides, and cover the earth
on the remaining side with clean sand and gravel.
There should be a strip of land at least two feet wide all around the
tank, as a runway. When this is all arranged spread a layer of sand all
over the bottom of the tank, fill it with water, and place the cage
over all. You should have
An Old Piece of Canvas,
or some similar covering, for the cage, to be used when your sand is in
danger of being washed away by a downpour of rain.
Everything is now ready, and you can turn loose in the enclosure
Your Whole Collection
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