Fig. 1.
Make, or, if you are not a good workman, get a carpenter to make, a shallow wooden tray about two inches deep, lined with tin, which should be turned fairly over the edges, or sundry difficulties will appear in course of time. (See [fig. 1].) Then go to a wire-worker’s, and order him to make two frames of galvanized iron wire, like [fig. 2], and two more like [fig. 3], each being about half an inch shorter than the interior length and width of the tray, into which they are intended to fit easily. Also have another piece of similar wire made large enough to bend over the arched tops of the end-pieces, so as to make a roof like the transepts of the Crystal Palace. The edges of the side and end-pieces should be very stout, but those of the roof only moderately strong, or it will not bend easily. It will be better to have a square opening at each end, which should be closed by a door of similar materials. As this wirework will be of coarse manufacture, and have tolerably wide intervals, the cost will be very moderate.
Fig. 2.
After these frames have been procured, fit them together, and fasten them by twisting bits of wire round the edges at intervals of three inches or so. Put this frame into the tray, and the cage is complete. The staples at the ends are useful for receiving the hooked end of a slight iron rod, looped at the other end to the edging-wire, as seen in [fig. 4]. These rods act as braces to keep the whole structure firm, and also hold it down to the tray. Some suitable sticks or branches should be fastened to the wires, as the squirrel is fond of playing about on them.
This is the day-room of the squirrel, and its bedroom is merely a proper-sized box, with wire-work substituted for the wooden bottom, a hinged lid, and a hole cut in one end. This should be supported on four legs; a nail at each corner (not a brass-headed nail) will answer the purpose perfectly well. This box is simply placed in the tray at the back of the cage. If it can be managed, a duplicate tray will be exceedingly convenient, as the cage needs the extremest cleanliness, and can be simply purified by changing the tray every morning, washing very carefully the one just removed, and leaving it in the air till the next day. A duplicate sleeping-box will be equally serviceable. The box should be furnished with perfectly clean hay, mosses, lichens, &c.