UC-NRLF 
 
 BY * 
 
 NAGEMENT^ 
 
 REV. Fi 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
THE CANARY. 
 
 i 
 
OUR CANARIES. 
 
THE CANABY 
 
 ITS 
 
 VAEIBTIES, MANAGEMENT 
 AND BBEEDINGK 
 
 WITH 
 
 PORTRAITS OF THE AUTHOR'S OWN BIEDS. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. FRANCIS SMITH, 
 
 EDITOH or "AHMINIUS," ETC. 
 
 FIFTH EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 GROOMBRJDGE AND SONS, 
 
 MDCCCLXXVIII. 
 
 f>, 1 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE following little Work has been written 
 for the purpose of conveying to the public a 
 somewhat more extensive and accurate know- 
 ledge of the many different breeds and beautiful 
 varieties to be found in that most delightful 
 of household pets, the CANARY, than generally 
 appears to exist. 
 
 The information given, being " a plain un- 
 varnished tale" of the writer's own personal 
 experience, will, it is hoped, prove alike inte- 
 resting and instructive to the reader ; while the 
 illustrations, drawn by his daughter, being 
 
 M3G8445 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 portraits, of his own birds, will serve as a guide 
 to those who may wish (like the Author) to 
 form a systematic and choice collection for 
 themselves. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A PLEA TOE THE CANABY . . . .1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 ORIGIN OF OUB OWN CANAEIA .... 7 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE WILD CANAET . . . . . .17 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OUE LlZAEDS ...... 21 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OUB YOBZSHIBE SPANGLES AND NOBWICH YELLOWS . . 29 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 OUE LONDON FANCY BIEDS . . . . .36 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 OUE BELGIANS . . . . . . .43 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 OUE GEEEN BIEDS . . * . 51 
 
viii Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FA OB 
 
 OUE CINNAMONS . . . . \ . 58 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 PEINCB CHAEMING AND HIS CHAEMING PEINCESS . . 69 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 OUE TITEN-CEESTS . . . . . . .76 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 THE DOMINIE AND THE GEEMANS .... 81 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 ON MULES . . . . . . . ( . 89 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 PEEPAEATIONS FOE BBEEDING . . . . .96 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 NEST-BOXES AND NESTS ...... 106 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 OUE FIEST BIEDS ...... 112 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 OUE MlSFOETUNES . . .'. . . 121 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 OUE INFIEMAEY . . . . . . . . 129 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 ON CAGES . . . . . . . .138 
 
THE CANARY; 
 
 ITS 
 
 VARIETIES, MANAGEMENT, AND BREEDING. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A PLEA FOR THE CANARY. 
 
 |OST persons," says Mr. Slaney in his interest- 
 ing outline of the smaller British birds, " are 
 acquainted with three birds a sparrow, a 
 robin, and a blackbird. Some beside know a skylark ; 
 as to the rest, they are often confounded under the 
 general and rather degrading name of small birds. We 
 have sometimes," he continues, " asked our fair friends 
 if they knew as many of the smaller birds as they could 
 count on their fingers ! They generally answered con- 
 fidently in the affirmative, but could seldom get much 
 beyond one hand ! " 
 
 The ignorance here complained of is not limited to 
 the wild species only, but it is equally true, we fear, of 
 the tame. Take, for example, the subject of the fol- 
 lowing pages. Everybody supposes that they know a 
 canary when they see it ; but bring their knowledge to 
 a practical test by a few plain questions, or set before 
 them a bird whose plumage in any material degree 
 
 1 
 
2 The Canary. 
 
 differs from the ordinary yellow bird familiar to us all, 
 and the chances are ten to one that, like the fair friends 
 alluded to by Mr. Slaney, they will soon discover their 
 mistake. I think I shall not be far wrong when I say 
 that the only idea which most people have of our little 
 favourite is limited to the bare fact that it is a yellow 
 bird having sometimes a patch of black on its head and 
 wings, and singing lustily in its cage. But never was 
 there a greater mistake. No bird represents such a 
 variety in its plumage, or exhibits so great a diversity 
 in its shape. No one, we are bold to affirm, seeing the 
 lizards, the cinnamon, or even a good green bird fot 
 the first time, unless a scientific naturalist, would ever 
 dream that they were canaries. 
 
 An amusing illustration of the truth of this remark 
 occurred to ourselves only a short time ago. Having 
 placed a beautiful cinnamon or fawn-coloured bird 
 that we had just purchased and brought home upon the 
 table, a party of ladies soon afterwards called, and 
 became quite enchanted with the singularly delicate 
 hue of its plumage, but never for a moment suspected 
 that it was a canary. Perceiving their ignorance, some 
 of the children, on their inquiring its name and coun- 
 try, maliciously replied that it was a foreign bird called 
 Sylph, which in one sense was true enough, for I need 
 scarcely tell any of my young readers that canaries came 
 originally from the Fortunate Isles, while the name we 
 had given to the bird in question was, as our youngsters 
 declared, " Sylph." With this explanation they were 
 perfectly satisfied. When, after keeping up the joke 
 for some time, you may judge of their surprise on being 
 
A Plea for the Canary. 3 
 
 told that in reality it was only a very common bird 
 called a canary, and that the name we had given it was 
 only its own familiar designation amongst ourselves. 
 Of course they heartily laughed at the deception that 
 had been temporarily practised upon them, and con- 
 fessed their ignorance upon the subject, though they 
 had all lived in the country, and therefore more or less 
 supposed to be familiar with birds, and what is more, 
 had even been keepers of canaries themselves ! The 
 same thing has occurred over and over again with our 
 lizards, and a beautiful wild specimen brought from 
 the island of St. Helena, portraits of which are here- 
 after given. Indeed, except those engaged in the trade, 
 or in the breeding of prize birds for exhibition, few 
 people are aware of the many very different breeds and 
 beautiful varieties which are to be found amongst these 
 charming birds. 
 
 Much has been said and written during the past few 
 years to create a taste for the aquarium and the crawling, 
 cold-blooded inhabitants of the water. With the upper 
 classes there was quite a mania for awhile to make an 
 acquaintance with the stickleback and the newt, and 
 every one was professing an interest in the gyrations of 
 a goggling gulping carp, or the mountebank antics of a 
 lively minnow ! Well ! chacun a son gout every one 
 to his taste, as the French say. These, to some minds, 
 may be interesting for a time ; but give me an aviary of 
 canaries, whose beautiful colour, elegant form, charming 
 docility, and sweet song, at once charm the eye, de- 
 light the ear, and enlist my sympathies ! To my 
 mind there is no comparison between the two, and I 
 
4 The Canary. 
 
 really wonder the latter has never become the fashion 
 of the day. When canaries were first introduced into 
 England, they were so highly prized that none but the 
 most wealthy could afford to purchase them ! In the 
 days of Queen Elizabeth they appear to have been 
 appreciated as they deserved, but in the days of Queen 
 Victoria, who, however, we believe is a notable ex- 
 ception to the general rule, and who has, we understand, 
 a beautiful collection at Osborne except by the lower 
 class of people who breed them for sale or show, these 
 beautiful birds seem to be little admired or regarded ! 
 How seldom do we see more than one in a house of the 
 middle classes, how rarely do we meet with any number 
 collected together in an aviary or room for the purpose of 
 breeding amongst those who could well afford to do so ! 
 Why is this ? Has our pretty favourite lost anything 
 of its original beauty of plumage by its domestication 
 amongst us ? Is it less elegant in form, less docile in 
 its temper, or less loving and winsome in its manners, 
 than were its progenitors three hundred years ago ? 
 By no means ; the beauty of its plumage, the elegance \ 
 of its figure, the docility of its disposition, the charming 
 familiarity which induces it to nestle without fear or 
 reserve beside us, to say nothing of its melodious song 
 which has of late years been well nigh cultivated to 
 perfection, are as striking and prominent as ever. Truly 
 its winsome ways and interesting habits claim and 
 deserve the attention of all classes of society, and if 
 bestowed, we venture to say would unquestionably 
 afford a never-ending round of innocent amusement and 
 delight. 
 
A Plea for the Canary. 5 
 
 Strange, passing strange, that this beautiful bird is 
 not oftener found in the homes of the middle and upper 
 classes of society than it is. How many a sitting-room 
 opening towards the morning sun, whose walls are now 
 bare of any ornament, either from pictures or bookcase, 
 might be adorned and enlivened by a miniature aviary 
 between the chimney and the window, like the one 
 hereafter to be described. To the sick, or to the invalid 
 obliged to pass the long dreary months of winter within 
 the house, how many an otherwise gloomy hour would 
 their presence lighten, how much interesting occupa- 
 tion and unfatiguing labour would they afford and call 
 into exertion ? How attractive and useful, too, where- 
 ever there are children, would such an aviary be in a 
 nursery, especially in large towns, where little or no 
 opportunity for studying the habits of birds is pre- 
 sented ! To watch them build their nest, patiently 
 brood over their eggs, and hatch and feed their callow 
 young, are operations which are not only intensely in- 
 teresting to every child, but may be turned with mani- 
 fest advantage to great practical account. Here they 
 may silently learn those invaluable lessons of kindness, 
 and love, and patience, which shall fit them for the 
 trials of after life, and, it may be, be imprinted on their 
 hearts for ever ! Who can tell what consideration for 
 the wants and forbearance with the faults of others these 
 little songsters may be the means of instilling into the 
 youthful mind thus privileged to watch them in their 
 daily course ? Who can say what stimulus and en- 
 couragement such an aviary might not often afford to 
 the study of every department of natural history, which 
 
6 The Canary. 
 
 but for it might never be undertaken! Seeing and 
 knowing little, many a child, we feel assured, would 
 naturally be led to desire to know more. Books thereon, 
 as a natural consequence, would be sought after with 
 avidity, and read with profit and delight, which but for 
 the canaries might probably lie idle and unlooked into 
 on the shelf. As the cost is so trifling, the pleasure so 
 great, the interest never ceasing, and the effect so good,, 
 we feel persuaded that the idea only requires to be sug- 
 gested for many to carry it out in practice in their nur- 
 series and homes. At any rate, should any be led to 
 make the experiment, we can promise them a golden 
 mine of amusement and delight, which those who have 
 never tried it would little credit or suspect. As Robert 
 Nicholl sang of its kindred finch the linnet so may 
 we, with equal or greater truth, say of the canary : 
 
 " Some humble heart is sore and sick with grief, 
 And straight thou earnest with thy gentle song, 
 To wile the sufferer from its hate or wrong, 
 By bringing nature's love to his relief. 
 Thou churmest by the sick child's window long 
 Till aching pain itself be wooed to sleep j 
 And when away have vanished flower and leaf, 
 Thy lonely wailing voice for them doth weep 
 Linnet, wild linnet ! 
 
 ** God saw how much of woe, and grief, and care, 
 Man's faults and follies on the earth would make ; 
 And thee, sweet singer, for His creature's sake, 
 He sent to warble wildly everywhere, 
 And by our souls to love to wake. 
 Oh ! blessed wandering spirit ! unto thee 
 Pure hearts are knit, as unto things too fair 
 And good and beautiful of earth to be 
 
 Linnet! wild linnet!" 
 
COMMON CANARY. 
 
Origin of our own Canaria. 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ORIGIN OF OUR OWN CANARIA. 
 
 1IKE many a greater undertaking, our canaria 
 had its origin in a very small beginning. Its 
 first traces, I believe, are to be found in a well- 
 meant gift of a kind granny to my daughter Judy, who, 
 I may as well say, once for all, was evidently " born to 
 love pigs and poultry," and which consisted of a common 
 yellow canary purchased in the market of my native 
 town. Had I been able to foresee the result of this very 
 questionable action, it is more than likely that I should 
 have exclaimed, with Mr. Jorrocks, of famous fox- 
 hunting celebrity and renown : (< Confound all pre- 
 seijts wot eats ;" while she, I think, would hardly have 
 consented to be the innocent cause of such a large 
 expenditure in cages, birds, and seed, as that which has 
 since taken place. Happily, however, for Judy, I was 
 no seer, and granny was not gifted, like the famous 
 heroine of Lucknow, with second sight. The purchase 
 was made on the eve of our return home from an annual 
 visit we pay into "the shires;" and back dicky was 
 brought to the smoky city of Manchester, where for 
 many years it was our lot to be located. Of this bird I 
 remember little, save that he was a good yellow, pos- 
 sessed a very amiable disposition, and was a most 
 uproarious songster. Indeed, so noisy was he during 
 lessons, that my wife was obliged to/cover his cage with 
 a cloth before ever she began to teach, which the chil- 
 dren, of course, voted a great shame. He lived a 
 
S The Canary. 
 
 bachelor's life, all alone, for about tbree years, when he 
 died in moulting, whilst we were all away from home 
 in the autumn, probably from neglect, being left in 
 charge of a servant, who knew little and cared less 
 about the requirements of birds under these trying cir- 
 cumstances. Great was the grief amongst our young- 
 sters at this, untoward event, for such a thing as his 
 dying had never entered their heads, and they probably 
 expected that he would live for ever. To soothe their 
 grief and repair the loss, on a fine Saturday morning 
 towards the end of October, I and the three elder 
 children, having set out on our usual marketing expedi- 
 tion, paid a sauntering visit to the bird fanciers' stalls. 
 Here we loitered about for some time, more out of 
 curiosity than with any idea of buying, when we sud- 
 denly found ourselves standing before an old man's 
 cage, who soon endeavoured to turn the occasion to 
 account by soliciting our attention to the quality of his 
 wares, and setting them off to the best advantage he 
 <iould. Though the day was somewhat cold and bleak, 
 and the birds were starved, we saw enough to make us 
 listen to his tale, and finally to make a purchase of 
 what seemed to us then a pretty little curiously-marked 
 grey hen canary, but about which I shall have more to 
 speak in another chapter, leaving behind another sin- 
 gularly coloured companion, which, after all, perhaps, 
 was the prettier, and certainly the more rare bird of the 
 two. The one we purchased was, to a fancier's eye, by 
 no means a good specimen of her kind, her feathers 
 being all tipped with white, which they should not be, 
 and her general colour being, instead of pure grey, 
 
Origin of our own Canaria. 9 
 
 tinged here, and there with a yellowish green. Still, 
 for all that, she was a very pretty bird, and we were all 
 highly delighted with her purchase. We took her 
 home, as usual, in a little paper bag, which, I may 
 observe, is by far the best way of carrying a bird you 
 purchase without a cage, and always to be had at the 
 nearest grocer's shop, when she evinced a most amiable 
 disposition, and soon became as tame as our original 
 dickey himself. Having thus got a hen canary, the 
 idea not very unnaturally occurred, how nice it would 
 be to have some young ones ! The thought was so cap- 
 tivating to the youngsters, that it soon took firm hold 
 of their minds, and culminated into an intense desire to 
 make the attempt. But how was this to be done ? Our 
 house was so small, and our family so large, there was 
 no room for such a thing, seeing that canaries, when 
 breeding, require not only a goodly space, but plenty of 
 light, and perfect quiet. The only room in the house 
 fit for the purpose was clearly the children's nursery, 
 and the place where the birds ought to be was already 
 taken up with bookshelves, on which were piled, besides 
 books, innumerable boxes and toys, including a four- 
 roomed doll's house, which they had made and fitted up 
 out of so many old tea-chests they had begged for the 
 purpose, and which almost reached up to the ceiling. 
 Well, what was to become of these? There was no 
 other visible place for them in the nursery. Oh, this 
 should be no obstacle in the way, they replied, if I 
 would only let them have an aviary, and remove the 
 books to the other side of the room, they would do all 
 the rest. Their much-loved doll's house should be 
 
10 The Canary. 
 
 stowed away in their bedroom, and all the other boxes 
 should be put into drawers at once, if I would only 
 consent. Well, I thought, the thing is feasible, and 
 will please me almost as much as the children. So we 
 set to work with a hearty good will ; the things were 
 soon stowed away and the bookshelves put up else- 
 where, leaving two of the latter to form the floor and 
 top of our proposed aviary. I then ordered a piece of 
 nicely tinned wirework, four feet ten inches long by 
 two and a half feet deep, to be made, having three 
 sliding doors, so placed as that one should be in the 
 centre near the bottom, and one near the top at either 
 end, so that the birds might be readily cleaned and fed, 
 and their nest-boxes be changed when required. And 
 now we were all impatience to begin. The wire was 
 faithfully promised by the end of the week ; but, alas ! 
 Saturday arrived, and yet no appearance of any wire. 
 Off we set the first thing 011 Monday morning, to know 
 the reason why, when again it was faithfully promised 
 the next day. That day came, and another, and another, 
 but still no wire. A second Saturday night, and we 
 felt sure it would come. Every footstep that passed by 
 the street-door was listened to with bated breath, and 
 every rap sent the hearts of the children, who were now 
 wound up to the highest pitch of excitement, straight 
 into their mouth ; but still all ended in disappointment, 
 and they were again obliged to go to bed without that 
 long-expected wire. A second Monday sees us at the 
 rascally wire-maker's door, who we now discover to 
 have been all along paying his devotions to his favourite 
 god Bacchus, and too fuddled with drink to work. This 
 
Origin of our own Canaria. 1 1 
 
 was past all endurance, so we left word that if it was 
 not completed and brought home hy the next day, we 
 should give the order to some one else, which at once 
 produced the desired result. The wire arrived late one 
 night, and I was fain to buckle to, and put it up ai 
 once, for until this was done the children, I soon saw, 
 would let me have no peace. 
 
 Although abhorring all manual labour from my 
 youth, and seldom taking a tool in my hands, lest, as 
 they say of the monkeys and their talking, I should be 
 made to work, I accordingly commenced my task. 
 Though a seemingly simple operation, it took me longer 
 than I expected, so that the children had to be sent off 
 to bed in the middle of the work ; and it was nearly 
 twelve o'clock before I had brought my labours to an 
 end. Two shelves of wood, little more than a foot wide, 
 and four feet six inches long, placed against the wall 
 between the chimney corner and a large bay window 
 opening to the morning sun, formed the floor and roof 
 of our miniature aviary ; four narrow iron stanchions 
 placed at equal distances apart, form so many supports 
 for the latter, and at the same time tend to strengthen 
 the wirework to which they are bound ; and thus the 
 whole thing is complete for the trifling sum of twelve 
 shillings. 
 
 On coming down stairs the next morning, the children 
 were enchanted at the sight. The long-wished-for desire 
 of their hearts was no longer an airy vision of the ima- 
 gination, like the castles and palaces of some fairy tale, 
 but a great reality. Aladdin himself could not have 
 been more delighted with the view of his enchanted 
 
12 The Canary. 
 
 palace than were they with the vision of this palatial 
 residence for their dickies. The long-drawn lines of 
 the brightly-tinned wire shining in the morning sun, 
 contrasting in strong relief with the dark iron stanchions 
 to which the wire was bound, gave a charm and airy 
 lightness to the whole, which exceeded the utmost 
 bounds of their conception. They at once expressed 
 intense satisfaction and delight at this happy realisation 
 of their wishes, which thus formed a handsome, spacious, 
 and useful aviary, at a very trifling cost, fit for the 
 habitation of the very choicest specimens of canary 
 land. 
 
 To transfer the birds to their new habitation, and 
 see how they would look, was but the work of a few 
 minutes ; and the only regret was we had not another 
 above it. This, we all thought, would not only be ex- 
 tremely useful for the birds, but greatly improve the 
 appearance of the whole. As it would only require 
 another shelf, and a piece of wirework similar to the 
 other, we decided at once to double the size of our 
 aviary, which accordingly was soon done. 
 
 As all would clearly have to be taken down and re- 
 arranged, we think it would decidedly add to the beauty 
 of the whole, if in place of the dark claret-coloured 
 paper with which the wall at the back was then covered, 
 a light blue marble- coloured paper was substituted in- 
 stead. This we thought would certainly contrast better 
 with, and set off to greater advantage, the yellow 
 plumage of the birds, as well as make it more cheerful 
 and light. Accordingly, having procured the necessary 
 paper, to my other accomplishments I add that of paper- 
 
Origin of our aeon Canana. 1< 
 
 hanger for the nonce, with Judy for my help. Though 
 I had not served a regular apprenticeship to the trade, 
 I never doubted for a moment but that we should soon 
 accomplish the task, and was somewhat surprised to 
 find out that, like many other things in the world, it 
 was not so easy as it seemed. 
 
 The woodwork being put up first, it seemed the 
 quickest and most natural way to cut the paper the 
 whole length required at once, rather than into a 
 number of short strips from the roof to the floor. This 
 I accordingly did; and having often seen how the 
 regular practitioners paste a whole piece before putting 
 it on the wall, I thought I would do the same. So, 
 spreading my paper on the window-seat, I soon put on 
 the necessary paste to my complete satisfaction. Thus 
 far all was well, and I had only to put it up against the 
 wall close by and dab it down with a cloth. But, 
 alas! how true is the saying, "There's many a slip 
 between the cup and the lip." Taking hold of the 
 upper corner of one end, Judy doing the same at the 
 other, I just succeeded in raising it to the desired place, 
 when, horror of horrors ! the whole, from its weight, 
 gave way in our hands, tearing in all directions. As 
 fast as we attempted to save one part, another began to- 
 go ; our fingers thus got all over paste, and we made 
 an awful mess of the little we managed to preserve, till 
 at length, seeing the hopelessness of our task, we gave 
 it up as a bad job, when a general collapse ensuing, the 
 whole mass fell to the ground in one irreparable heap of 
 rubbish and ruin ! Here was a practical proof, indeed, 
 of the proof of the proverb which says, " the more haste, 
 
14 The Canary. 
 
 the worst speed/' at the same time that it showed us 
 what is very often hard to believe, viz., that we were not 
 quite so clever as we thought. ' Though certainly dis- 
 comfited, we were not dismayed, but gaining wisdom by 
 experience, we manfully set about our work again, 
 ringing the while 
 
 " The web 'mong the leaves 
 
 The spider weaves 
 Is like the gay charm Hope hangs o'er men ; 
 
 Though often she sees 
 
 *Tis broke by the breeze, 
 She spins the bright tissue again." 
 
 Instead, however, of trying to do it all at once, we 
 cut our paper according to the depth required. These 
 short lengths were soon put up by mamma, who now 
 came to our aid. Slips of plate-glass, about two inches 
 deep, were fitted inside the bottom of the wirework, so 
 as to take o.ut at pleasure, through which the birds 
 looked very pretty, and could always be seen, whilst they 
 kept the sand and seed from falling out and being 
 scattered about the room. A cut-glass vase, in each 
 compartment, to hold their water to drink, and to bathe 
 in, gave additional lustre to the whole, which, thus 
 finished, became quite as ornamental to the room as it 
 was useful for the purpose we intended. 
 
 Having thus completed our aviary, we naturally 
 began to wonder how many young ones we should 
 have, how pretty they would look just popping their 
 heads over the sides of their nest, and how charming it 
 would be to see them first hop abroad in the world. 
 Already visions of profit began to rise before our eyes 
 as we began to calculate the numbers we should have 
 
Origin of our own Canaria. 15 
 
 to dispose of, and the prices they would unquestionably 
 fetch. Supposing, we argued, we had four pairs of 
 birds in each aviary, and each pair bred twice a year 
 only, and reared four young birds each time, a very 
 moderate calculation, we considered, seeing that many 
 writers put them down as breeding generally three and 
 sometimes four times a season, and having five and six 
 at a brood, and supposing that each pair only fetched 
 five shillings, then it was pretty clear that we should 
 not only pay our expenses, but realise a considerable 
 profit besides. Thus, like the enthusiastic milkmaid in 
 the fable, did we hoist our basket of eggs upon our 
 heads, and count our chickens before they were hatched. 
 The birds, however, were not yet bought that were to 
 produce these golden dreams; and the question was, 
 how and by whom the necessary capital was to be 
 raised. Judy, as the owner of dicky, wanted to go 
 shares with me in all that were bought, so that she 
 might have an interest in each pair, and share in the 
 profits they were to bring. Agnes was of the same 
 mind, and wished to do the same, while Gerty was in- 
 different, Letty too prudent, and poor Polly, as usual, 
 unable. This, however, I thought would dip too deeply 
 into their exchequer ; so I compromised the matter by 
 allowing the two former to advance ten shillings each 
 from their own funds, and to beg another ten for the 
 purpose from their granny, and I would find the remain- 
 der, the whole to be divided into so many shares, accord- 
 ing to the capital ultimately required, and each receiving 
 a proportionate amount of the profits that should be 
 made. Thus Judy, Agnes, and myself, entered into a 
 
16 The Canary. 
 
 sort of joint-stock partnership with limited liability for 
 the purpose of breeding canaries an arrangement which 
 suited all parties, and gave great satisfaction to each. 
 The firm being thus completed, we entered upon the 
 business with great zest, having full confidence in the 
 soundness of our project, and deriving from it much 
 immediate pleasure, which was certain to increase as 
 the spring came on, if it did not actually realise our 
 most sanguine expectations of profit. 
 
 " Where is the troubled heart consigned to share 
 Tumultuous toils, or solitary care, 
 Unblest by visionary thoughts that stray 
 To count the joys of fortune's better day ? 
 Oh ! vainly wise, the moral muse hath sung, 
 That suasive hope hath but a syren tongue ! 
 True, she may sport with life's untutor'd day, 
 Nor heed the solace of its last decay ; 
 The guileless heart her happy mansion spun, 
 And part, like Ajut, never to return ! 
 
 " And yet methinks, when wisdom shall assuage 
 The grief and passions of our greener age, 
 Though dull the close of life, and far away 
 Each flower that hailed the dawning of the day; 
 Yet o'er her lovely hopes, that once were dear, 
 The time-taught spirit, pensive, not severe, 
 With milder griefs her aged eye shall fill, 
 And weep their falsehood, though she loves them still.'* 
 
THE WILD CANARY 
 
 THE EMPEROR. 
 
The Wild Canary The Emperor. 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE WILD CANARY THE EMPEROR. 
 
 ]HE picture on the opposite page is an accurate 
 drawing, both as to form and colour, of a beau- 
 tiful wild canary now in our aviary, and 
 which, from his being brought from the island of 
 St. Helena, we call the Emperor. He has now 
 just got over his second autumnal moulting, and, to 
 a casual observer bears little resemblance to the ordi- 
 nary yellow domesticated bird, with which we are all 
 familiar. His beak and legs are shining black, and 
 much more powerful than those in the tame species, as 
 he will soon let you know if you take him in your 
 hand. His body also is much stouter, approaching 
 more the fulness of the linnet than the tapering 
 slenderness of the golden-yellow birds bred in England 
 and Belgium. No one, looking at him for the first 
 time, would suppose that the bright grass green of his 
 back, with darker wing coverts and tail, had any 
 alliance with any of the varieties commonly found at 
 home. Yet such is the case. All writers agree that 
 their natural colour is a greyish brown, merging into 
 yellowish green in the under parts of the body. " In 
 their native state," says a writer in the c Popular Cyclo- 
 paedia,' " they are of a dull and uniform green, and 
 exhibit none of that richness and variety which are so 
 much admired in the tame ones." Our bird is any- 
 thing but dull in his colours ; on the contrary, both the 
 green on his back and the yellow of his belly are of 
 
18 The Canary. 
 
 the most vivid kind, the former not having the least 
 mixture of brown usually found in the green hirds hred 
 at home. His song, too, is entirely different from the 
 tame variety, nothing like so loud or piercing, but 
 more approaching the subdued warbling of the gold- 
 finch or ^linnet. Indeed it is acknowledged on all 
 hands, that the song of our domesticated birds is alto- 
 gether artificial, being little else than a compound of 
 notes learned from other birds. 
 
 It was about the beginning of the sixteenth century 
 that the canary became first known in Europe, when 
 a ship having a large number on board, and destined 
 for Leghorn, was wrecked on the coast of Italy. The 
 birds having regained their liberty, flew to the nearest 
 land, which happened to be the island of Elba, where 
 they found so mild a climate that they built their nests 
 there, and became very numerous. But the desire to 
 possess such beautiful songsters led to their being 
 hunted after, until the whole wild race was quite 
 destroyed. In Italy, therefore, we find the first tame 
 canaries, and here they are still reared in great numbers. 
 Their original locality, however, was the Canary Isles r 
 from whence, I suppose, they derive their name On 
 the banks of small streams, in the pleasant valleys of 
 these lovely islands, they build their nest in the branches 
 of the orange-trees, of which they are exceeding fond ; as 
 an instance of this, even in this country birds have been 
 known to find their way into the greenhouse, and select 
 the fork of one of the branches of the orange-tree on 
 which to build their nest, seeming to be pleased with 
 the sweet perfume of its blossoms. 
 
The Wild Canary The Emperor. 19 
 
 As they are naturally inhabitants of warm climates, 
 and made still more delicate by constant residence in 
 rooms, it is of the highest importance to keep these 
 birds in a warm equable temperature during winter, 
 and free from all cold draughts of air in summer, two 
 hours' exposure to the latter either in summer or winter 
 being sufficient not only to cause sickness, but certain 
 death. To keep canaries in a healthy and happy state, 
 it is desirable that the cage should be frequently hung 
 in brilliant day-light, or, if in a room, that it should 
 open towards the morning sun, which especially they 
 delight in, and which when bathing is as necessary as 
 it is agreeable to them. 
 
 So attractive has been found the canary on account 
 of its pretty form and charming qualities of its mind, 
 that it is now kept and reared throughout the whole of 
 Europe, and even in Russia and Siberia. Indeed, as 
 Beckstein has justly remarked, "the qualities of its 
 mind are as varied, or even more so than its plumage., 
 for amongst them it has been discovered, as amongst 
 quadrupeds and even men, some individuals are gay, 
 and others melancholy; some quarrelsome, others mild; 
 some intelligent, others stupid ; some with quick memo- 
 ries, others lazy; some greedy, others frugal; some 
 petulant, others gentle ; some ardent, others cold." 
 Our own aviary amply bears out this statement, and 
 proves what an infinite fund of pleasing recreation and 
 instructive amusement a very small collection of these 
 very beautiful birds will afford. Thus Buttercup is the 
 gayest of the gay, whilst Daisy will sit and mope upon 
 her perch for hours together, immoveable as " patience 
 
20 The Canary. 
 
 upon a monument smiling at grief." Lady Grey is 
 amiability itself, whilst Spangle, her lord and master, 
 is irascible and fierce as the baron of Shurland Castle 
 when he called for his wondrous boots. Dandy is 
 energetic, as Sultan is portly and sedate. Marquis is 
 mild and gentle, whilst Prince Charming is the essence 
 of good breeding and propriety. Little Brilliant is lazy 
 and greedy, as Blanche is quick and the Princess 
 distingue in her breeding. Seraph has a wonderfully 
 retentive memory, having learnt many of the notes of 
 the German canaries in whose company he was but a 
 few days. In short, each bird has its own characteristic 
 individuality, and is a study in itself, ever varying in 
 its mood with the changing circumstances of the hour. 
 In sunshine gay, in winter dull, in spring-time full of 
 life and vigour, in autumn moulting, and sick, and 
 weak ; when courting the most ardent of lovers, when 
 married the most dutiful and affectionate of husbands, 
 helping their wives with the most assiduous attention 
 when making their nest, and superintending the 
 bringing up and education of their family with exem- 
 plary regularity and care, now receiving some delicate 
 morsel from their owner's hand, and then showing their 
 gratitude by repaying him with a song. Such are some 
 of the many attractive qualities of the canary, such are 
 the traits of character which our own present to our 
 daily notice. The reader, therefore, may judge for 
 himself whether we have overrated the merits of these 
 charming birds, or can possibly be wrong in thus re- 
 commending them to the more favorable notice of the 
 public. 
 
THE LIZARD CANARY. 
 
 SPANGLE AND LADY GREY', 
 
Our Lizards. 
 
 " Birds ! birds ! ye are beautiful things, 
 
 With your earth-treading feet, and your cloud-cleaving wings ; 
 Where shall man wander, and where shall he dwell, 
 Beautiful birds, that ye come not as well ? 
 Ye have nests on the mountain, all rugged and stark, 
 Ye have nests in the forest, all tangled and dark 
 Ye build and ye brood 'neath the cottager's eaves, 
 And ye sleep on the sod 'mid the bounie green leaves ; 
 Ye hide in the heather, ye lurk in the brake, 
 Ye dive in the sweet flags that shadow the lake ; 
 Ye skim where the stream parts the orchard-decked land, 
 Ye dance where the foam sweeps the desolate strand. 
 Beautiful birds ! ye come thickly around, 
 When the bud's on the branch and the snow's on the ground ; 
 Ye come when the richest of roses flush out, 
 And ye come when the yellow leaf eddies about. 
 Beautiful birds ! how the schoolboy remembers 
 The warblers that chorused his holiday time ; 
 The robin that chirped in the frosty Decembers j 
 The blackbird that whistled through flower-crown'd June. 
 That schoolboy remembers his holiday ramble, 
 When he pulled every blossom of palm he could see, 
 When his finger was raised as he stopped in the bramble, 
 With ' Hark ! there's the cuckoo; how close he must be!'" 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OUR LIZARDS. 
 
 ]O great has been the effect of domestication, and 
 the pains that have been taken in their breeding,, 
 that canaries may now be found of almost every 
 hue and colour. " Buffon enumerates twenty varieties," 
 says a writer in the ' Popular Encyclopsedia,' " and many 
 more," he continues, " might probably be added to the 
 list, were all the changes incident to a state of domestica- 
 
22 The Canary. 
 
 tion carefully noted." We know not how these gentle- 
 men would classify them, or what difference is sufficient, 
 in their estimation, to constitute a distinct variety. 
 Many, we imagine, would be but slight modifications of 
 the same general colour, and could scarcely be anything 
 more than slight and fanciful variations at the most. 
 For our own part, we think the following will include 
 most of those which have any claim to be considered a 
 distinct variety, and even these will be found in breed- 
 ing to produce birds quite different in colour to them- 
 selves, so that the variety spoken of is rather to be 
 understood as an accidental circumstance belonging 
 only to the individual bird, than as referring to any 
 difference in the breed to which it may thus chance 
 to belong. Setting aside the wild canary, we have 
 the well-defined lizards, the Yorkshire spangles, the 
 Norwich golden yellows, the London orange, with 
 black wings and tail, the green, the cinnamon or fawn, 
 the buff or pale yellow, the pure white, the orange 
 Belgian, and the German, and under one or other of 
 these heads all the rest may be ranged. As we have 
 specimens of all these varieties in our own aviary, we 
 shall say a few words upon each, and Judy will give 
 accurate portraits of the birds, which together we hope 
 may prove both instructive and interesting to all who 
 may honour our pages with a perusal. 
 
 Curiously enough, the first bird that we purchased 
 was, perhaps, the most rare, as certainly it is the most 
 distinct variety, viz., the Lizard, so called from some 
 fancied resemblance in its markings to the reptile of 
 that name. The coloured representations on the oppo- 
 
Our Lizards. 23 
 
 site page are very fair likenesses, and convey a very 
 good idea of a pair of our own birds, whose history I 
 will now relate. Were they not told beforehand, few 
 people, I think, would take them for canaries, which 
 thus bears out the assertion I made at the beginning of 
 the book as to the general ignorance which prevails 
 amongst people unconnected with the trade, and shows 
 at a glance what a variety there is amongst them. 
 
 It was on a fine November morning, now some years 
 ago, that Judy and I started off to a well-known bird- 
 dealer's, to make our first purchase for the new aviary. 
 We set out with the intention of buying a pair of the 
 London variety, which, however, we found not to be 
 much in request amongst the bird-fanciers of Lanca- 
 shire, and therefore seldom to be met with in Manchester. 
 The nearest approach to anything of the kind we saw 
 was a bird of a golden-yellow colour, with black spots 
 or stripes on the crown of his head. As he was a 
 lively, elegant-shaped bird, though somewhat weakly 
 and very young, we soon had him separated from his 
 companions, and hung in a black show-cage for our 
 inspection. With good keep and careful attention we 
 thought he would soon outgrow these deficiencies, an<7 
 as we otherwise thought him a desirable bird, there we 
 left him, whilst we looked round the stock in th& 
 adjoining room, and finally determined on the propriety 
 of his purchase. 
 
 Here, amongst others, we saw a whole cage-full of 
 that charming variety called the Lizard, but whose 
 markings remind me much more of the gold and silver- 
 pencilled Hamburg fowl, or Sebright's bantam, so well 
 
24 The Canary. 
 
 known amongst poultry, as will be seen from our illus- 
 tration. Their distinguishing characteristic consists in 
 having the crown of the head, either pure white or 
 yellow, like the tonsure of a Cistercian monk, whilst 
 the rest of the upper part of their bodies are covered 
 all over with regular black spots on a clear grey or 
 bright orange, after the manner of the fowls above 
 alluded to. The tail, wings, and feet should be of a 
 uniform dark hue, without any admixture of white, 
 while the throat and breast should be of a lighter shade 
 and approach more nearly the colour of the head. 
 
 It so happened that in the cage before us were some 
 particularly good specimens of the kind, and I need 
 hardly say we were delighted with our visit. As yet, 
 however, we had no idea of making a purchase, believing 
 them to be altogether out of our reach, and so we told 
 the dealer at once, and were about to pass on. This, 
 however, he would not hear of, no doubt thinking that, 
 like the clockmaker and his clocks, if he could only 
 gain a hearing, he might safely trust to human nature 
 to finish the bargain. So taking a slight wand in his 
 hand, he soon separated from out of some twenty or 
 thirty others one of the finest birds he had in the 
 room. Placing him in a jet black cage upon the table, 
 with the rays of the morning sun shining brightly on 
 his plumage, he required no Yankee soft sawder to 
 commend him in our eyes. Judy was enchanted, I was 
 delighted. What could we do? One of the most 
 splendid coloured and regularly-marked birds our eyes 
 had ever beheld, now sat proudly on his perch, and 
 demanded at our hands the homage he evidently felt 
 
Our Lizards. 5 
 
 due to his rank and birth. Could we help inquiring 
 about his price ? Had the most phlegmatic spectator 
 or the most inveterate bird-hater been placed in our 
 position, we think he could not have done less. " Well,, 
 what will you take for him ?" we timidly ask, more by 
 way of gratifying our curiosity than with any real 
 intention of buying. " Ten shillings," is the reply. 
 Ah ! this is beyond our mark, for as yet we have not 
 made up our minds to go beyond half that sum. The 
 bird, we acknowledge, is dog-cheap at the money, and 
 we both sigh that we cannot afford to give so much for 
 a canary. With longing eyes and lingering steps we 
 turn our backs upon this most beautiful of birds, and 
 return to complete the purchase of the one we had left 
 in the adjoining room. Judy remained transfixed with 
 enchantment to the spot whilst our purchase was 
 effected, which caused another visit to the room, and 
 ended in a sort of wavering in our hitherto stoical 
 determination to resist all temptation to buy. But 
 alas ! for our pocket, we are charmed with the voice of the 
 charmer. The tempter approaches us in the shape of 
 a whisper from Judy that he is so beautiful, she will 
 give half the sum required out of her own pocket, if I 
 will only consent to the purchase ; already we begin to 
 give way, when reason steps in with the conclusive 
 argument, that if we really intend to breed canaries, we 
 may as well breed good ones as bad ones, seeing that 
 the difference is only in the first cost. This clenched 
 the matter at once, we listened to the pleasing delusion 
 and fell willing victims, I fear, to the temptation we at 
 first so manfully resisted. Judy carried him home 
 
26 The Canary. 
 
 delighted beyond measure with our success, but judge 
 of our astonishment and dismay when, on first exhi- 
 biting our splendid prize, he only met with qualified 
 admiration and praise. From want of eyes to see, and 
 knowledge and taste to appreciate our illustrious 
 stranger's beauty, some said he was only " very well," 
 while Agnes, whose taste is generally very good, openly 
 declared, "there was nothing to make such a fuss 
 about " in him ! How it was they failed to see him in 
 the same light that we did, when we first saw him in 
 the dealer's shop, I cannot tell, but we consoled our- 
 selves with the reflection, that it was " useless to throw 
 pearls before swine," whilst they now confess with 
 Judy and myself that truly he is a beauteous bird. 
 
 The first hen we bought of this breed, and which, 
 like the one in our picture, was a light grey, came to 
 an unfortunate and untimely end, which, inasmuch as 
 it may serve as a caution to others, I may as well 
 relate. Being of a very tame and amiable disposition, 
 she naturally became quite a pet with the children, and 
 soon learned to leave her cage and fly about the nursery, 
 and perch upon their hand without the smallest fear. 
 Every day, as soon as they came home from school, the 
 cage-doors were immediately opened, and out flew the 
 birds, which thus had their liberty for several hours 
 a day, much to our youngsters' admiration and delight. 
 Unfortunately birds were not the only pets in the house, 
 for Judy had another in the shape of a very fine large 
 grey tabby torn cat, whom for his noble appearance and 
 many good qualities she has named after the greatest 
 of Roman generals, " Drusus." Whether he merits so 
 
Our Lizards. 21 
 
 honorable a title, however, may fairly be doubted, for 
 he is undoubtedly a great thief, and not very scrupu- 
 lous in the means he employs to obtain his own ends. 
 Indeed, he is not to be trusted, though very aristocratic 
 in his outward appearance, and wearing an enormous 
 moustache, a bit farther than he can- be seen, and 
 scarcely that. .In an evil hour the children, having let 
 out their birds as usual, thought, as the little redpoles 
 were rather troublesome to get in again, they would 
 leave them at large whilst they had their dinner in the 
 parlour. This they accordingly did, when all of a 
 sudden in comes the cook, and announces, without the 
 least concern, in her dry Lancashire way, " T'cat's got 
 a bird," and again as quietly retiring; she and the 
 nurse immediately sat down to their dinner without 
 making the least attempt at a rescue. Not so we. Out 
 we all moved ; but, alas ! too late, as you may suppose, 
 to be of any avail. As soon as he had seized his prey, 
 Drusus retreated to his lair in the cellar, where we 
 could hear him growling and swearing at the bottom of 
 the steps. After him went Judy and Gerty, who soon 
 found him with the bird in his mouth ; the latter, un- 
 deterred by the danger, dashed upon him at once, and 
 rescued the poor victim from his ferocious grasp. But 
 the deed was done our much-prized little lizard 
 canary was no more ; and all we could do was to lament 
 over our loss, and scold the servants for their careless- 
 ness in leaving the door open, and their unfeeling con- 
 duct in selfishly sitting down to their own dinner, 
 instead of trying to save the life of the bird ere it was 
 too late. The accident, however, has been a warning 
 
28 The Canary. 
 
 to us since ; and we never let any of our birds out unless 
 some of us are present to keep watch and guard against 
 the enemy. Cats and birds are naturally mortal foes, 
 and should never be in the same room, or even house, 
 together. 
 
 But having now got a splendid cock bird, if we were 
 to breed pure lizards, we must necessarily purchase 
 another hen. This, of course, necessitated another visit 
 to the dealer in question, to see if we could get a mate 
 worthy of our former purchase, and at the same time be 
 within the limits of our purse. In this we fortunately 
 succeeded, purchasing a beautiful grey hen without a 
 foul feather about her, and which had already been 
 paired with the bird we had previously bought. To a 
 person unacquainted with the subject of breeding the 
 canary it may seem strange that I should select a grey 
 hen to pair with a yellow cock. To obtain brilliant- 
 coloured birds it might have been thought that a hen 
 similar to the cock would have been most likely to 
 ensure the desired effect. I confess that I was of this 
 opinion myself at first, but was assured by practical 
 breeders and fanciers that the latter method is the most 
 approved fashion, and that birds of opposite colours in- 
 variably produce young with the finest feathers and 
 markings. 
 
 Having got the birds, the next thing was to find 
 them appropriate names. As now we were going to have 
 a numerous family, it became absolutely essential ta 
 give each its peculiar name, in order to distinguish the 
 one from the other. After tea, therefore, a grand pala- 
 ver was held on the hearth-rug, Indian fashion, before 
 
THE YORKSHIRE AND NORWICH CANARIES. 
 
 UEAUTY AND BUTTERCUP. 
 
Our Yorkshire Spangles and Norwich Yellow. 9 
 
 the fire, to determine this important point. It was 
 unanimously agreed that the name to be adopted should 
 be easy of pronunciation, expressive of their peculiar 
 character, or a tribute to their beauty. Many were 
 the names suggested, and many were the objections 
 raised to their adoption. High-sounding titles of 
 Spanish chivalry, or of Arthur's princely court, or 
 German fairyland, failed in the triple requisition we 
 had conceived necessary for such an illustrious pair. 
 Names renowned in Roman history or Grecian song 
 shared no better fate, till at last some one hit upon the 
 simple but expressive titles of " Spangle and Lady 
 Grey," which all acknowledged to be so peculiarly 
 appropriate and characteristic, that they were at once 
 unanimously adopted. We hope, therefore, our readers 
 will recognise the propriety of their names, and think 
 with us that a baronet's title well became the beauty 
 and rank of a pair destined to take so high a position 
 in canarian life. 
 
 " What's in a name ? That which we call a rose 
 By any other name would smell as sweet; 
 So Romeo would, were he not Romeo calPd, 
 Retain that dear perfection which he owes, 
 Without that title." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OTJR YORKSHIRE SPANGLES AND NORWICH YELLOW. 
 
 HESE two varieties represent the ordinary 
 description of canary to be found more or less 
 in almost every town in England. They are 
 
SO The Canary. 
 
 respectively so called from the places where each is 
 chiefly bred, and usually found in the greatest abun- 
 dance. Our representation gives a very fair idea of the 
 general character of each, and will show the difference 
 of the two at a glance. The spangled bird, usually of 
 a pale mealy colour, with greenish-brown head and 
 wings, is the more general favorite with the working 
 men in the manufacturing district of Yorkshire and the 
 north, whilst the golden yellow is preferred by the men 
 in the neighbourhood of Norwich, where it is chiefly 
 bred, and from whence it is annually sent up in 
 large numbers for the London market. The former is 
 much the more robust and stronger bird of the two, but 
 of course lacks that beautiful golden plumage which 
 gives such an elegant and airy lightness so striking in 
 the appearance of the latter. The Yorkshire bird, too, 
 say the Lancashire fanciers, is superior in its song ; but 
 this, for my own part, I very much doubt. I do not 
 profess to be a judge in this matter ; but, so far as my 
 experience and observation go, I should certainly have 
 awarded the palm in this respect to the bird from 
 Norwich. They are certainly more sprightly and ener- 
 getic, and more vigorous and constant in their song, 
 than their brethren of the north, who are necessarily, 
 from their shape and constitution, generally speaking, 
 of a more phlegmatic temperament. The Norwich 
 bird, no doubt, is more nervous, and consequently more 
 delicate in his constitution ; but he makes up for this, 
 in my opinion, not only by the superior beauty of his 
 colour, but by the greater vivacity of all his movements, 
 and the hearty, merry joyousness of his song. To see 
 
Our Yorkshire Spangles and Norwich Yellow. 31 
 
 him dance along his perch, merry as a grig, and beating 
 time to his own tune, as with distended throat and up- 
 raised crest he pours out a torrent of sweet song, capti- 
 vates you at once, and makes you a sharer of his joy. 
 To me the Yorkshire birds always seem deficient in these 
 points, and give you an idea of a steady, dull plodding 
 man, very excellent in his way, but never electrifying 
 you with the brilliancy of his thoughts, or thrilling you 
 with the fiery energy of his action. This, however, may 
 be mere fancy on my part, but so it is. I admit being 
 partial to colour and vivacity of action, whether it be 
 found in fish, flesh, or fowl. Being more accustomed to 
 the golden yellow of the south-eastern counties, I may be 
 no impartial witness in the matter ; but, however this 
 may be, still I say f ' the yellow-haired laddie " for 
 me! 
 
 The breeding of canaries by the working classes 
 in the manufacturing districts we have named is 
 not only a very favorite pursuit, but a very profit- 
 able trade. The numbers which they annually breed, 
 and the prices which they will give for a good 
 canary, will appear fabulous, and altogether unjusti- 
 fiable, to those unacquainted with the subject. Our 
 artisans in Manchester think nothing of giving one > 
 two, and three pounds for a single bird. On a 
 Saturday afternoon and night the market and shops, 
 as well as the public-houses used for the purpose, 
 are crowded with men and lads, having either birds 
 to sell, or looking on and watching what is going 
 on around them. The veriest tyro in the business 
 thinks as little of giving five or ten shillings for a 
 
3% The Canary. 
 
 bird as he does of giving eightpence for a pound of 
 steak to frizzle with his tea. The late disastrous crisis 
 through the want of cotton has dealt a hard blow to 
 the bird-fanciers in this locality, many of whom were 
 of course entirely out of work. Very pitiable was it 
 to see a man or lad obliged to part with the pets of his 
 household through sheer want, and then, when the 
 birds were gone, selling the empty cage as well. I 
 myself lately, more out of charity than because I really 
 wanted it, gave a poor lad from Stockport five shillings 
 for his cage, after he had sold his birds in the market, 
 to support his family, who were literally starving for 
 the want of food. Still it is astonishing to see the 
 numbers yet kept. In almost every other house, I had 
 nearly said in every back street in Manchester, when 
 the cottage-doors were open, you might see breeding 
 cages hanging on the walls, and hear their occupants 
 enlivening the gloomy desolation around. During the 
 darkest phase of the distress a poor woman, whom I was 
 visiting in order to relieve, and who nevertheless was in 
 great distress herself, on my pointing to a canary which 
 hung in what had once been a very handsome cage, and 
 inquiring how she could afford to keep a bird, when she 
 could not keep herself, replied, with tears in her eyes, 
 "Ah! sir, that bird was my poor husband's. Poor 
 fellow, he gave fifteen shillings for it, and five for the 
 bird, which I thought sadly much of at the time ; but 
 it was his only hobby, and I keep it for his sake. The 
 poor thing is getting old now, and does not sing so well 
 as it did ; but I would sooner part with any thing I have 
 in the house than it or the cage." I admired her for 
 
Our Yorkshire Spangles and Norwich Yellow. SB 
 
 the self-denial and feeling love which she thus mani- 
 fested in her widowhood and distress for the aged song- 
 ster, who thus recalled the recollection of better times 
 and brighter hopes, and gladly gave her a portion of 
 that bounty which had been entrusted to my charge. 
 So far as I could see, it appeared to be 
 
 " The one green spot in her memory's waste," 
 
 and long may it be ere this remaining link in her life'& 
 existence be severed from her grasp. How sweetly does 
 Mrs. Hemans sing those alone can understand who,, 
 like Byron, have felt solitary " amidst the crowd and 
 hum and shock of men : 
 
 " Give me but 
 
 Something whereunto I may bind my heart, 
 Something to love, to rest upon to clasp 
 Affection's tendrils round !" 
 
 This is no solitary instance. The poor bird will often,, 
 we feel convinced, be the last thing parted with by 
 those long-enduring and heroically patient men. Any- 
 how, the breeding of them is, as we have said, an 
 enthusiastic and often profitable pursuit. Exhibitions 
 are held and prizes are given by societies formed for the 
 purpose, which, as the ' Times' lately remarked, is a 
 vast step in the way of civilisation, and infinitely in 
 advance of the cock-fighting and bull-baiting of former 
 days. For lack of support by the upper classes of 
 society, and for want of suitable room anywhere else, 
 I am sorry to say these are chiefly held at some public- 
 house or tavern, whose landlord finds it to his interest 
 to give a considerable sum, that the meetings may be 
 held at his house. Thus I have now before me a bill 
 
 3 
 
34 The Canary. 
 
 announcing a grand annual show of Belgian canaries, 
 which was to take place last Whit-Saturday, at a 
 certain public-house in this town, whose landlord gives 
 4 10^., on condition that the show is held at his 
 house, that he have the appointment of the judges, that 
 the birds shown remain for exhibition until the night 
 following the day of showing which, of course, is 
 Sunday and that every member spend 6d. each 
 monthly meeting night, which, I am sorry to add, is 
 also on a Sunday, previous to the show, whether he 
 be present or not. 
 
 Now, objectionable as much of this is, it is worse 
 than useless to rail at the amusements of the people, 
 unless we provide them with others equally attractive. 
 By a little countenance from the classes above them, 
 and by a little judicious management and attention, 
 surely a recreation so harmless in itself might be divested 
 of the attendant evils at present surrounding it, and 
 made subservient to the education and refinement of 
 the people. The free use of one or more rooms con- 
 nected with our public institutions, and the giving of a 
 few pounds towards the prizes, like the worldly-wise 
 publican above, would surely induce these poor men to 
 hold their meetings during the week day, and leave the 
 Sabbath for bodily rest and spiritual sustenance of their 
 soul. By so doing, I, for my part, cannot but believe 
 that much would be done towards counteracting the 
 attractions of the public-house and its attendant evils, 
 much towards enabling the working classes to overcome 
 the pernicious habit of frequenting them, much towards 
 fostering in their breasts a love for healthier and purer 
 
Our Yorkshire Spangles and Norwich Yellow. 35 
 
 scenes, much towards making them feel that there was 
 a time for all things, and that the Sabbath most 
 assuredly belonged to the Lord their God. The exhi- 
 bition and breeding of these beautiful birds is certainly 
 a pursuit to be encouraged ; and I believe that if the 
 religious portion of the community would only encourage 
 these and such like innocent and rational modes of 
 amusement among the working classes, the latter would 
 not be long insensible to the kindness and sympathy 
 shown in their behalf. By degrees they would be re- 
 claimed from the haunts of vice and crime ; by degrees 
 they would imitate the example of those above them ; 
 by degrees they would be found filling our. churches 
 and keeping the Sabbath, as it should be kept by every 
 man professing to be a Christian, " holy unto the Lord." 
 As William Cowper truly sings : 
 
 " Religion does not censure or exclude 
 Unnumbered pleasures harmlessly pursued; 
 To study, culture, and with artful toil 
 To meliorate and turn the stubborn soil ; 
 To give dissimilar yet fruitful lands 
 The grain or herb, or plant that each demands; 
 To cherish virtue in an humble state, 
 
 And share the joys your bounty may create: 
 
 ****** 
 
 These, these are arts pursued without a crime, 
 That leave no stain upon, the wing of time." 
 
36 The Canary. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OUR LONDON FANCY BIRDS. 
 
 |F all the varieties of the canary, perhaps this 
 is the most beautiful of any. It is known in 
 the trade as the London fancy, because it is 
 there that it is chiefly bred. They are of a rich golden 
 yellow or deep orange, with black wings and tail, like 
 the bird represented on the opposite page. About their 
 breeding there is much mystery and some peculiarity 
 which fanciers like to keep to themselves. To get into 
 these secrets is almost, if not quite, as difficult a matter 
 as to penetrate into the mysteries of training a race- 
 horse for the Derby or St. Leger. One thing is certain, 
 that to produce them in a state fit for exhibition at the 
 annual show at Sydenham, as much training and atten- 
 tion, united with skill, is required as is necessary to 
 bring a high-bred racer to the post. Not only must the 
 bird be fed on the most nutritious and dainty food, but 
 the sides of his cage must be encased with glass to 
 shade him from every draught of wind ; and he must be 
 kept at a high temperature, like the race-horse, to pro- 
 duce that condition and glossiness in his plumage which 
 shall enable his owner to obtain the prize. That it is 
 strictly a cross-bred bird I have no doubt, inasmuch as 
 there is this peculiarity about it, that when quite young 
 it is mottled all over on the back something after the 
 fashion of a Lizard, and that it only acquires its clear 
 golden yellow after its moulting, and then retains only 
 the pure black of its wings and tail the first year. The 
 
LONDON PRIZE CANARY. 
 
 BRILLIANT AND BLANCHE. 
 
Our London Fancy Birds. 37 
 
 second autumnal moulting introduces white or grey into 
 these latter, which at once disqualifies it for the pur- 
 poses of exhibition, and increases year by year till it 
 becomes merely an ordinary plain bird we see every 
 day. To be a prize bird there must not be a foul 
 feather that is, either white amongst the black, or 
 black or grey amongst the yellow, found in its body. 
 The latter also must be a rich golden yellow or deep 
 orange, without any approach to a paler or mealy tinge, 
 which at once would be fatal to its chance of success 
 when exhibited in competition with others. Such being 
 the case, we need scarcely say that a bird possessing 
 such qualifications is comparatively rare, and fetches a 
 high price. A guinea and upwards is the ordinary 
 price asked by dealers for these beautiful specimens of 
 canary land, though good birds, with here and there a 
 foul marking disqualifying them for exhibition, may 
 often be purchased for half that sum. For my own 
 part, I believe this beautiful variety has been produced 
 by crossing a Lizard cock with a French hen, whose 
 colour is a beautiful bright yellow, with an intermixture 
 of jet-black spots, and but little or no white in them 
 a variety which was first introduced into this country 
 some few years ago, or vice versa, as the case may be. By 
 judicious crossing and recrossing in this way, I have no 
 doubt the London fancy bird of which we are speaking 
 has been obtained and preserved ; and any one fond of 
 making experiments of this nature so doing would, I 
 feel persuaded, be rewarded with success for his pains. 
 This, however, it must be understood is merely a private 
 opinion of my own, countenanced, nevertheless, by men 
 
38 The Canary. 
 
 well versed in the breeding of birds here ; for, as I said 
 before, those engaged in the matter are very mysterious 
 about their operations, and little inclined to impart 
 their secret to the world. 
 
 Well, our great desire now was to obtain a pair of 
 this beautiful variety for our aviary. This was brought 
 about by reading in the newspapers of the day an 
 account of the beautiful birds exhibited at the Syden- 
 ham show, and seeing a picture of this lovely variety in 
 the work of a popular author of the day, which also 
 informed us that it was almost peculiar to London and 
 its vicinity. I now recollected that I once myself bred 
 a single brood having jet black wings, tail, and head, 
 from a pair of apparently common-looking birds, which 
 my brother brought home when he came from Harrow 
 School, and which were the most beautiful of any I had 
 ever then seen. Unfortunately, however, they all met 
 with a sad fate, and I never succeeded in rearing any 
 more of the kind. Being so exceedingly beautiful I 
 brought them from the room in which they were bred, 
 and placed them in a large cage which stood in our 
 entrance-hall, on a pedestal for the purpose. As might 
 naturally be expected they were the admiration, if not 
 envy, of all who saw them, but alas ! this did not last 
 long, for one night either a mouse or rat got into the 
 cage, and killed every bird in it, so that when the 
 servant opened the shutters in the morning, there was 
 nothing but a few feathers and mangled remains of the 
 poor little things left. It was a sad misfortune, and 
 grieved us all very much at the time, but it was one 
 which we could not have foreseen, and scarcely have 
 
Our London Fancy Birds. 39 
 
 provided against. When there is any suspicion that 
 there is any such vermin about, care should be taken 
 not to place the cage against anything by which they 
 may climb up, or a fate similar to that which befel our 
 birds will assuredly be the consequence. The best 
 plan, where practicable, is to hang the cage on a hook 
 for the purpose in the ceiling, which precludes the pos- 
 sibility of accidents of this nature, and places them at 
 once beyond the reach of danger. 
 
 Many years had passed since then, and I had never 
 seen any canaries either like my own or those depicted 
 and described as being now exhibited at the Crystal 
 Palace, and peculiar to London. In vain I inquired 
 for them in Manchester, in vain I asked where they 
 were to be obtained, the only response being that they 
 were seldom seen anywhere but at the great shows held 
 in the metropolis, where they were highly prized. 
 Judge then of my delight when, one day calling at our 
 bird-dealer's shop for some seed, he told me he had two 
 or three birds of the London breed down at his other 
 place, in another part of the town. Thither I accord- 
 ingly repaired, and soon descried three splendid-coloured 
 birds in a cage in the shop-window ; two of them were 
 somewhat irregularly marked, butane answered my pur- 
 pose in every respect, being of a beautiful golden yellow 
 or orange, with black wings and tail, and having only a 
 very faint tinge of grey on one side of his neck. I at 
 once determined to secure him, but unfortunately the 
 man left in charge of the shop was gone out, and there 
 was only a little girl, who knew nothing about the 
 price, in. Dinner-time was fast approaching, and I 
 
40 The Canary. 
 
 could not wait till his return, and so I reluctantly left 
 the bird behind, not daring to say anything about his 
 purchase until I knew his price. 
 
 I carried the news home, however, which immediately 
 created the intensest excitement amongst the children. 
 It would never do to let such an opportunity pass by, 
 without attempting to buy him. Judy urged that im- 
 mediate steps should be taken in the matter, lest some 
 one else should step in, and deprive us of our much- 
 coveted prize. This we thought not at all unlikely, 
 and so decided to return immediately after dinner, for 
 the purpose of seeing, at all events, whether he was 
 within the reach of our pockets, if we did not actually 
 buy. Dinner, as might have been expected, now 
 became of little consequence in their eyes, the meal 
 was soon despatched, and Judy and I started upon the 
 exciting errand. Though it was a dark sombre after- 
 noon, and more than two miles and a half oif, we started 
 very willingly in a thick drizzling rain to purchase this 
 much-desired and lovely specimen of canaria. Before 
 we arrived at our journey's end the wind blew quite a 
 hurricane, and the rain poured down, whilst many were 
 the misgivings we had by the way, lest, after all, our 
 labour should be lost, and the bird be gone. With as 
 much joy as feels the tempest-tossed mariner who sees 
 the friendly port, and descries the haven where he 
 would be, we at last reached our destination, and found 
 the birds were still there. Judy was enchanted, the 
 price moderate, the opportunity favorable, so we were 
 not long in securing the great object of our search. 
 We chose the more regularly marked bird of the three 
 
Our London Fancy Birds. 41 
 
 for a cock, and a mealy hen, according to general re- 
 commendation, with a dark-crested head, for his com- 
 panion, which we put into two paper-bags, and started 
 back on our return. But the wind again blew a hurri- 
 cane, and the rain poured down incessantly, so that 
 Judy and I could hardly make head against it. To 
 secure the birds, therefore, from the violence of the 
 tempest, I transferred them to my hat, which I pressed 
 firmly on my head. In this way we wended our weary 
 uphill way back, bravely bearing up against the pitiless 
 storm, and darkening night, caring little for either 
 wind or weather. Though the distance was full five 
 miles, Judy declared she would have walked twice as 
 much, rather than have lost the chance of securing such 
 a prize. At length we reached home, where a cheerful 
 fire and comfortable tea were awaiting our arrival, 
 and made us soon forget all the discomforts of our 
 journey. 
 
 Before bit or drop, however, was tasted, a host of 
 inquiries had to be answered, and the eyes of the ex- 
 pectant group, who now gathered clamorously around 
 us to know the result of our expedition, must be 
 gratified! No sooner did they see the well-known 
 little bags produced than, as might have been anti- 
 cipated, their anxiety knew no bounds, to catch a 
 glimpse of the expected prize ! Every foot-fall for 
 some time had been listened to with anxious expecta- 
 tion, and now they could wait no longer. So whilst 
 we pull off our wet clothes, they willingly prepare a 
 cage, and into it we soon turn our much-prized trea- 
 sures. The rich plumage of the one, and the sprightly 
 
4 The Canary. 
 
 liveliness of the other, at once captivated all hearts, so 
 that Agnes at once bestowed upon them the very 
 appropriate names of Brilliant and Beauty, which they 
 have ever since retained, and still deserve. But, alas, 
 the former is evidently all the worse for his journey ; he 
 sets up his feathers, and rolls about the bottom of the 
 cage like a drunken man ; with great difficulty he can 
 sit upon his perch, and it is plain, from some cause or 
 other, that he is very ill altogether. Though his case 
 looked bad, and there was obviously considerable danger 
 of our labour being lost by his death, mamma could 
 not help joking us about the loss of our money, and 
 the enthusiasm we had displayed. We were in no 
 mind, however, to lose him so easily, or to give him up 
 without making an attempt to cure him of his malady. 
 Judging that he had been made giddy by the length of 
 his journey, and the close confinement and want of 
 air he must necessarily have experienced in my hat, I 
 immediately took down my homoeopathic medicine- 
 chest, and prescribed what I thought would be likely 
 to suit his case. Mixing four or five drops of tincture 
 of belladonna in his water, I placed it in his cage, when 
 he immediately freely and frequently drank of its 
 contents, which seemed to revive and bring him about 
 at once. By degrees he became able to retain his seat 
 on the perch, so that by the time we went to bed we 
 had little or no anxiety about his recovering. The 
 next morning he was evidently much better, though 
 still far from well. We continued, therefore, his medi- 
 cine, changing it in a day or two to china in order to 
 recruit his strength, when, after a little time, I am 
 
THE BELGIAN CANARY. 
 
 SULTAN 7 A N '.) S U L T A N , 
 
Our Belgians. 43 
 
 glad to say, " Richard was himself again." It was a 
 narrow escape certainly, and I would advise every one 
 to be cautious in putting a bird into their hats for any 
 long distance. The practice, I know, is very common^ 
 and answers very well for a short journey, and where 
 there is plenty of ventilation, but it becomes dangerous 
 when either the distance is long, or the ventilation 
 stopped or imperfect. We had now, however, got our 
 heart's great desire, and the portraits we have given of 
 the birds themselves will show that their beauty is not 
 over-rated, and that we did well to encounter so long 
 and rough a journey for their acquisition. We knew 
 full well the value of opportunity, and profited by our 
 knowledge. The lesson this little incident may teach 
 we hope will not be lost upon our youthful readers, for 
 most assuredly, as Shakespeare sings 
 
 " There is a tide in the affairs of men 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
 Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
 Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 
 On such a full sea are we now afloat ; 
 And we must take the current when it serves, 
 Or lose our ventures." 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OUR BELGIANS. 
 
 |A.VING thus secured a pair of Lizards, a pair 
 of Yorkshire spangles, and a pair of London 
 fancy birds, we were no longer satisfied with 
 the little short, ill- shaped, common canary usually met 
 
44 The Canary. 
 
 with, but raised our thoughts at still higher game. 
 Christmas had now arrived, and brought with it the 
 usual foreign importations from Belgium and Ger- 
 many. Accordingly, one bright December morning, 
 Agnes and I set off to our bird-dealer's to see what 
 there was to_be seen. There we found a numerous and 
 splendid collection of beautiful and high-priced birds from 
 Belgium awaiting our inspection, and with whose lovely 
 colour and noble bearing we were at once delighted. 
 There was as much difference between these birds and 
 an ordinary English canary as there is between an old- 
 fashioned Northamptonshire cart-horse and a pure bred 
 Arabian of the desert. Nor is the comparison inappro- 
 priate; on the contrary, it serves to point out the 
 essential differences existing between them. Thus, as 
 in the horse, so in the bird, whereas the head of the 
 more common breed is thick, and round, and narrow, 
 that of the Belgian is square, and wide, and flat, the 
 skull and back forming an exact triangle, instead of 
 the narrow oval usually found in the foreheads of the 
 common breed; whereas the neck and throat of our 
 English birds are short, and thick, and clumsy-looking, 
 that of the Belgians is long, tapering, and elegant; 
 whereas the whole body of the former is short and 
 stumpy, that of the latter is long, tapering, and slender ; 
 whereas the colour- of the former is, comparatively 
 speaking, poor and mealy (we are speaking now only 
 t)f the common varieties), that of the latter is rich, and 
 bright, and pure, many of them presenting as much 
 difference in the matter of colour as exists between a 
 xipe orange and an ordinary lemon. The great feature, 
 
Our Belgians. 4& 
 
 nowever, that distinguishes this elegant breed from all 
 others is their high square shoulders, and erect position 
 when standing on their perch as represented in our 
 illustration. This gives them a remarkable and pecu- 
 liar appearance, which is produced by the pinions of 
 their wings being placed higher up on their backs than 
 those of any other variety, and which thus consequently 
 distinguishes them from all others. 
 
 Though so much esteemed by Fanciers, and fetching 
 far higher prices than any other breed, it is surprising 
 how seldom and briefly they are mentioned by those 
 who have written specially upon the subject. Bechstein 
 says literally nothing about them at all, whilst all the 
 authors of the present day it has been Our fortune to 
 meet with, either follow his example, or their remarks 
 are so short and so general, if not absolutely untrue, 
 that it is clear they can have little practical acquaintance 
 with this department of their subject. Thus, a popular 
 London writer who was, at one time, regarded as a great 
 authority on the subject, writes thus, " Of late years 
 the Belgian canaries have come into repute with some 
 fanciers. They are long-bodied, and anything but 
 elegant in form and carriage. They are, however, 
 strong, healthy birds, and by pairing a cock of that 
 breed with a Norfolk or Yorkshire hen, which is of a 
 more compact shape for sitting on the eggs, a fine rape 
 is the issue. Their song does not excel that of the 
 breeds just mentioned, but they assist in forming a 
 variety." Having thus oracularly delivered himself he 
 then dismisses the whole subject as unworthy any 
 further notice whatever. Now, if we state that the 
 
46 The Canary. 
 
 reverse of all this is the case, we shall be simply stating 
 the truth, as our readers will gather from the description 
 and illustration already before them. The Belgian, in- 
 stead of being, as this author describes them, " anything 
 but elegant in form and carriage," is, on the contrary, 
 extremely and necessarily elegant, not only in the out- 
 line of his figure, but when animated or excited also 
 in the bearing of his carriage. Drawing a line from 
 the point of his beak, over the crown of his head, taking 
 in the curve of his neck, and the rise of his shoulders, 
 and proceeding down his back to the tip end of his tail, he 
 presents a series of curves as nearly as possible approach- 
 ing to that waving line of beauty which Hogarth, in his 
 ideal of elegance, sketched upon his palette. View him 
 as you will, from above or below, from his shoulders or 
 his chest, the lines become " fine by degrees and beau- 
 tifully less," utterly forbidding any loop-hole of escape 
 in the oft-repeated but false dictum that, after all, 
 " such things are a mere matter of taste." Beauty of 
 form indeed is a matter of taste, but not of fanciful 
 taste or mere whim and caprice, and is as much 
 regulated by well-defined and well-understood laws as 
 any which regulate any other matter of art or science. 
 Had the writer in question, however, stopped here, no 
 great harm would have been done, as people in this 
 matter could judge for themselves ; but when he goes 
 on to say that "they are, however, strong healthy 
 birds," he says that which is the reverse of true, and 
 which, in the nature of things, is calculated to lead 
 people astray. So far from their being anything of the 
 kind, I believe every bird- dealer in the kingdom who 
 
Our Belgians. 47 
 
 has had any experience in the matter, will hear me out 
 when I say, that of all the various breeds as yet in- 
 troduced into our country, the Belgian is by far the 
 most tender of any. Indeed it requires no great know- 
 ledge of physical anatomy to understand that such, from 
 the conformation of the bird, must necessarily be the 
 case. The extreme narrowness of their chest abso- 
 lutely precludes them from being otherwise than very 
 delicate, for to be healthy and strong, we all know, a 
 wide expansion of chest is absolutely requisite in bird, 
 beast, and man. In this there can be neither exception 
 nor qualification ; to talk therefore of their being either 
 <f strong " or " healthy " is simply ridiculous, and 
 betrays not only great ignorance, but almost makes us 
 doubt whether a man so talking could ever have seen 
 one in his life. My own experience has already con- 
 firmed what reason and information had already told 
 me was the case, and I repeat again that of all the 
 various breeds of the canary hitherto known in this 
 country, that of the Belgian is the most tender and 
 delicate to manage of any. 
 
 Well, a splendid show of these remarkable birds had 
 just been imported direct by our bird merchant, who 
 goes himself periodically to make their selection. Where 
 all is beautiful it is difficult to make a choice, and this 
 time Agnes and I felt very much like the ass between 
 two bundles of hay recorded in the fable ; our choice, 
 however, was not so extensive as it seemed, for, besides 
 the beauty of the birds their price also had to be con- 
 sidered, and this had a considerable influence in guiding 
 us to a choice. Indeed, this was the greatest obstacle 
 
48 The Canary. 
 
 in our way, for, in reply to our inquiry into this rather 
 delicate affair, we were very politely told that our friend 
 had nothing under thirty shillings apiece in this cage, 
 and that, while for particular individuals he should 
 want two, three, and as much as five and eight pounds 
 each ! At this we opened our eyes, and stared rather 
 widely, as you may suppose, not being as yet prepared 
 to give more than as many shillings for a canary. To 
 our untutored eyes there was little apparent difference 
 among them, but that there was such we had con- 
 vincing demonstration by seeing several ordinary work- 
 ing mechanics come in, and, picking them out, give 
 their two and three pounds for a bird, without the least 
 demur or hesitation. In fact, Mr. M assured me that 
 he had just sold three birds at the respective prices of 
 five, eight, and nine pounds each, whilst he had known 
 as much as twenty-four pounds sterling to be given for 
 one in its native country. Such prices, I need scarcely 
 say, did not suit our pocket, and were given only for 
 birds specially designed for exhibition. He had, how- 
 ever, others, which he had taken in exchange for those 
 newly imported, and which he could sell much cheaper ; 
 so with these we were fain to be content. Half a dozen 
 birds of this description, and which for the purposes of 
 breeding were, perhaps, little inferior to their higher- 
 priced brethren, were soon separated by the aid of his 
 magician wand from the rest, and drafted out from a 
 host of others into as many little black cages for our in- 
 spection. Proudly did they stretch out their long thin 
 necks and snake-like heads, as they stood erect upon 
 their perches, demanding our homage ! Truly, it was 
 
Our Belgians. 49 
 
 a beauteous sight. Agnes was at once all eyes, whilst 
 I was in raptures of delight ! This bird excelled in 
 form, that in the richness of his colour, a third had a 
 finer carriage, a fourth a greater development of tht 
 shoulder, a fifth is more animated in his movements, 
 whilst a sixth is more lengthy and taper in his body. 
 How shall we decide? Among such a profusion of 
 charms, how make a selection ? Agnes goes for elegance 
 of figure. I am captivated with the colour. She pleads 
 for a tapering figure. I insist upon squareness of head 
 and development of shoulder. Minutely do we scan 
 their respective beauties, and canvass their various 
 charms. At length we compromise the matter by 
 choosing a very lengthy hen and a deep golden-coloured 
 cock with a beautiful snake-formed head, high shoulders, 
 and deep body, for which we give the comparatively small 
 sum of fifteen shillings the two. Home we carry them, 
 highly pleased at the success of our mission and the 
 cheapness of our bargain. Of all the Christmas shows 
 we had yet seen this eclipsed all ; nothing in the way of 
 feathers, we thought, could ever come up to it. To 
 transfer them to their new abode was but the work of a 
 few minutes on arriving at home : the next thing was 
 to cast about for names befitting their high dignity and 
 station. Towering far above all others, and excelling 
 them in the gorgeous richness of their yellow plumage 
 as much as do the beams of the morning sun the calmer 
 rays of the queen of night, we at once placed them in 
 the regal rank. There being no others to dispute their 
 possession to the royal throne, they were at once ad- 
 mitted to their new palace, amidst a general chorus of 
 
 4 
 
50 The Canary. 
 
 song and twitterings of delight, where they reigned as 
 the undisputed " Sultan" and " Sultana" of their race. 
 
 "And let the good be named 'The Good;' 
 
 The true, 'The True ;' the brave, ' The Brave;' 
 
 Titles not bought and sold for blood, 
 
 Like those our war-girt monarchs gave 
 
 And let the just be still 'The Just/ 
 
 So men shall know wherein they trust. 
 
 " Look on our noble once again, 
 
 None nobler graced the ranks of old; 
 No death-strewn fields his honours stain ; 
 
 He battles not for fame nor gold ; 
 But with an earnest, loving heart, 
 He cometh still, and plays his part. 
 
 "No painted badge, no tinsel star, 
 
 Lie idly glittering on his breast ; 
 But nobler, grander, worthier far 
 
 Truth's light stands in his eyes confest:. 
 And round the broad brow proudly plays, 
 That glows and brightens in its blaze ! 
 
 " This brave, high homage, spirit-paid, 
 
 Shall shrine the worth of woman too, 
 Fitly entitling wife and maid, 
 
 The Meek,' ' The Tender/ or ' The True/ 
 And she whose brow small beauty wears, 
 Mav yet well grace the name she bears. 
 
 " Is this a dream ? No ! by the past, 
 
 With its dense darkness pierced at length 
 And by the present brightening fast 
 
 And by the future's noon-day strength, 
 Earth's truly Great and Good shall be 
 Her last, best aristocracy !" 
 
Our Green Birds. 51 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OUR GREEN BIRDS. 
 
 JAVING thus got so many distinct varieties of 
 breed, we now desire to add to our little collec- 
 tion specimens of every description of colour. 
 In our Yorkshire and Norwich birds we had the 
 spangled white and plain yellow, in the lizards the 
 dark grey and green gold, in the London fancy the rich 
 yellow contrasting with the jet black, and in our Bel- 
 gians the pure golden orange. There were two others 
 we particularly desired to meet with, viz., a pure grass 
 green and the exquisite fawn. With regard to the first 
 of these we did not suppose we should have much 
 trouble, though in this we were destined to be deceived ; 
 whilst with regard to the latter we stood in considerable 
 doubts whether we should be able to obtain one at all, 
 as we knew it to be the rarest of any. Though green 
 birds are as plentiful as blackberries, they were all, we 
 soon found, more of a dingy brown than a real green, 
 and for the most part very ugly, ill-shaped birds, into 
 the bargain. Scores and scores did we see with heads 
 and necks thick as those of the common house- sparrow, 
 and whose plumage was more like that of the linnet 
 than a canary. With such short, stumpy, ill-favoured, 
 and dingy-feathered birds we would have nothing to do. 
 When we said we wanted a green canary, we meant one 
 whose colour was as green as the grass or the leaf of an 
 ash-tree, coupled with a form long, tapering, and 
 slender as that of the Belgian. On this we had set our 
 
62 The Canary. 
 
 minds, and this or none we would have. Long had we 
 to wait, many a journey into the bird-market on a 
 Saturday morning, and many a look into the bird- 
 dealers' shop-windows did we take before we could 
 meet with one anything approaching to the idea we had 
 in our mind's eye. At length Mr. M had a batch of 
 the description we were in search of, and we had the 
 first pick of the lot ; unfortunately there were no hens, 
 but all cocks. We soon, however, made our choice, for 
 our eye immediately fell on a bird which united in him- 
 self all the qualifications we required. Brilliant in 
 colour, snake-like in head, and lengthy and tapering in 
 body, as well as animated and lively in his movements, 
 we soon saw he would be all that we could desire. He 
 was as unlike the ordinary birds of his kind we had 
 hitherto seen offered for sale as it is possible for two birds 
 of the same species to be. There was not the slightest 
 resemblance to the linnet-like tribe we have described ; 
 but his elegant form and vivid colour at once proclaimed 
 his near alliance to the Belgian blood. Strutting about 
 in his bright green coat, interlaced with long dark 
 stripes down the back, and in his vest of saffron-yellow, 
 no sooner was he introduced to the palace of the sultan 
 than his high breeding was recognised at once, and he 
 became quite the exquisite of the court. On this 
 account we gave him the name of " Dandy," from the 
 somewhat foppish character of his gait, though he is by 
 no means effeminate ; on the contrary, he is robust and 
 energetic in all his actions, foremost in every fray, sings 
 a capital song, is very sociable in his disposition, and 
 quite a jovial character every way. Every one thought 
 
THE GREEN CANARY. 
 
Our Green Birds. 5& 
 
 him quite an acquisition to our select circle of canaria, 
 where his striking appearance makes him ever the 
 observed of all observers. 
 
 It was again a long time before we could find a 
 spouse fit for so beautiful a bird. Many were the visits- 
 we paid to the market, many were the peeps we took at 
 the bird-shops, ere we could meet with a hen to our 
 liking. At length, however, we met with one quite 
 accidentally, as we were passing by the arches under 
 the railway station on the London Road, where my ear 
 was suddenly attracted by the well-known <e sound as 
 of many waters," from a hundred little German throats, 
 and which told me that a fresh arrival of canaries had 
 taken place. Soon I espied a window full of those little 
 wooden cages in which these charming songsters are 
 annually imported into this country, and below them 
 one or two apparently English -bred birds, which induced 
 me to enter. The place was stifling hot, being pur- 
 posely so kept by means of a stove, in order to make 
 the German birds maintain a continual gush of song 
 during the short time their wandering proprietor might 
 stay, but which, I need scarcely say, is a practice no 
 less contrary to nature than it is injurious to the bird, 
 and the cause of much complaint and disappointment 
 to the purchaser. The effect already produced on some 
 of the English birds was plainly perceptible, and many 
 of them looked languid and drooping, from the great 
 heat to which they were exposed. Among them, how- 
 ever, were two birds which, from their colour, I par- 
 ticularly desired to possess, one of which was a green 
 hen, exactly answering the description of bird wo 
 
54 The Canary. 
 
 wanted as a mate for our bachelor " Dandy." She was 
 i beautiful dark grass-green, with well-defined clear 
 black markings down the back, and without a white 
 feather about her at the time. I say at the time em- 
 phatically, for I afterwards discovered one had been 
 plucked from her tail by the crafty German, in order to 
 enhance her value in the eyes of an unwary purchaser. 
 This trick is a very common one, I believe, with low, 
 unprincipled dealers, who besides often paint their 
 birds into the bargain, so that it requires a very prac- 
 tised eye to detect the imposition. In London, I am 
 told, this very reprehensible practice is carried to a great 
 extent, even by dealers of long standing and position, 
 and who would be very much surprised and highly 
 indignant if they were told they were neither honest 
 nor respectable ! Yet such is the fact, and I mention 
 it, not only to put the unwary on their guard, but to 
 call the attention of such dealers and the public to the 
 subject, that the one may be ashamed of its publicity, 
 and the other exercise its power to put it down. 
 
 But to return. The bird before us, besides being 
 suitable for our purpose as regarded her colour, was 
 equally so in point of breeding and shape. Like that 
 of her destined lord, the elegance of her figure, the 
 fineness of her head, and the length of her body, 
 bespoke at once her alliance to the Belgian strain. She, 
 however, looked languid and drooping, which, though 
 I knew was the effect of the high temperature of the 
 room, still made me hesitate about her purchase. It 
 was in vain that they assured me in the shop she was 
 quite well and in perfect health, for my eyes told me at 
 
Our Green Birds. 55 
 
 a glance that she was nothing of the sort. There she 
 sat languid and listless on her perch, evidently quite 
 overpowered hy the heat, if not absolutely ill from 
 other causes. Still the German stuck to his text, or 
 rather her text, for it was a woman I had to do with, 
 and to every objection that I advanced she made a 
 counter-assertion in the opposition direction. So, like the 
 man who goes into a horse-dealer's yard, and ventures 
 to think that the animal he is shown turns in his toes a 
 trifle too much, and is shut up at once by the fierce off- 
 hand dictum of the dealer that so far from anything of 
 the sort, that worthy thinks if there is any fault at all 
 in this respect he rather turns them out, I began to 
 think that perhaps after all there was not much in it, 
 and so concluded the purchase. On my way home, 
 however, I called and showed her to Mr. M , men- 
 tioning my suspicions, which he immediately confirmed 
 on taking her into his hand, from her feeling soft and 
 spongy, instead of firm and hard to the touch, as a 
 bird in good health and condition invariably is. My 
 worst fears were soon verified on our arrival at home, 
 when she had to be consigned to the hospital at once, 
 instead of being introduced to her intended lord, for 
 whom she would otherwise have been a most excellent 
 match. I kept her some time during the winter, and 
 tried every remedy I could think of to cure her, but she 
 proved in the end asthmatical and finally died after I 
 had parted with her in the spring. 
 
 Thus we wasted our time, and lost our money, and 
 were no forwarder than when we first began our search 
 for a mate worthy the exquisite Dandy. Winter passed 
 
56 The Canary. 
 
 and spring came, without our seeing another at all 
 suitable as his match, and we began to despair of ever 
 meeting with a bird of the description we wanted, when 
 one morning Judy and I casually called at Mr. M 's to 
 see if anything fresh had come in, and met with the thing 
 we desired. He had just received two well-bred green 
 birds fronTthe country without a foul feather about 
 them. We chose the neatest and most sprightly of the 
 two, and immediately introduced her to her future lord, 
 who took to her at once, and seemed highly pleased 
 with our choice. Though a beautiful little bird, and a 
 great favourite with us all, she has never arrived at the 
 dignity of a name, which she certainly ought to have 
 had, but continues to this day to be known only by the 
 title of " the little green hen." For this, however, she 
 is none the worse, she makes Dandy an excellent little 
 wife, and is as exemplary as she is beautiful. By way 
 of concluding the present subject, let us listen therefore 
 to the excellent advice so charmingly given by Edwin 
 Henry Burrington in a volume entitled ' Revelations of 
 the Beautiful ' 
 
 " Walk with the Beautiful and with the Grand, 
 
 Let nothing on the earth thy feet deter ; 
 Sorrow may lead thee weeping by the hand, 
 But give not all the bosom-thoughts to her ; 
 Walk with the Beautiful. 
 
 I hear thee say, The Beautiful ' ! what is it ? 
 
 O, thou art darkly ignorant ! Be sure 
 'Tis no long weary road its form to visit, 
 
 For thou canst make it smile beside thy door ; 
 Then love the Beautiful 1 
 
Our Green Birds. 57 
 
 " Ay, love it ; 'tis a sister that will bless, 
 
 And teach thee patience when the heart is lonely ; 
 The angels love it, for they wear its dress, 
 And thou art made a little lower only : 
 Then love the Beautiful ! 
 
 " Sigh for it ; clasp it when 'tis in thy way ! 
 
 Be its idolator, as of a maiden ! 
 Thy parents bent to it, and more than they ; 
 Be thou its worshipper. Another Eden 
 
 Comes with the Beautiful ! 
 
 " Some boast its presence in a Grecian face ; 
 
 Some, on a favourite warbler of the skies ! 
 But be not fool'd ! Where'er thine eyes might trace, 
 Seeking the Beautiful, it will arise ! . 
 Then seek it everywhere. 
 
 " Thy bosom is its merit, the workmen are 
 
 Thy thoughts, and they must coin for thee : believing 
 The beautiful exists in every star, 
 Thou mak'st it so ; and art thyself deceiving, 
 If otherwise thy faith. 
 
 " Thou seest Beauty in the violet's cup ; 
 
 I'll teach thee miracles ! Walk on this heath, 
 And say to the neglected flower, ' Look up, 
 And be thou Beautiful !' If thou hast faith, 
 It will obey thy word. 
 
 " One thing I warn thee : bow no knee to gold j 
 Less innocent it makes the guileless tongue, 
 It turns the feelings prematurely old ; 
 
 And they who keep their best affections young, 
 Beat love the Beautiful !" 
 
58 The Canary. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 i 
 
 OUR CINNAMONS. 
 
 ]HE first cinnamon, or fawn-coloured canary we 
 ever saw, was one in the old bird-fancier's cage 
 who stood in the market at the time of our 
 visit recorded in our second chapter. At that time we 
 had not yet formed any definite idea in our minds as to 
 breeding, or indeed of having an aviary at all. But 
 now this had taken place, and become as the French 
 say unfait accompli, we sorely regretted the opportu- 
 nity we had missed in not making a purchase. As our 
 *>lan of operations developed itself, and breeds of different 
 localities and countries, as well as varieties of colour, 
 were decided upon, we sighed to think that we might 
 never have such a chance again. Weeks and months 
 passed on without our seeing anything of the kind, 
 when, calling one day at Mr. M 's shop, what should 
 we see in a cage just brought in by a countryman for 
 sale, but the very bird we had let slip in the market 
 some months before ! Here was a piece of good luck, 
 I thought, which could never have been expected ! 
 Unfortunately, however, Mr. M was out of town, 
 and the stranger had only contingently offered the 
 birds for sale in a lot, and had now departed. As he 
 was an entire stranger, and they knew neither his 
 name nor address, I left word with the man in charge 
 of the shop to be sure and tell Mr. M to buy the 
 -cinnamon bird specially for me. The next day we all 
 
THE CINNAMON CANARY. 
 
 SERAPH AND SYLPH. 
 
Our Cinnamons. 59 
 
 went down to look at this charming bird again, and 
 highly delighted we all were at the thought she would 
 soon be our own, as we did not doubt about easily 
 coming to terms as to her price. The day following 
 Mr. M had returned, but the owner of the birds had 
 not been. Saturday, and he was sure to come, when 
 our fondest wishes would be realised! Judge then of 
 our disappointment when, on calling the first thing on 
 Monday morning, we heard that Mr. M had not been 
 able to comply with our wishes, as the man insisted 
 that all his birds were cocks, whereas Mr. M con- 
 sidered them to be all hens, which made a considerable 
 difference in their value ! The worst of it was the man 
 was quite a stranger to Mr. M also, who knew not 
 who he was, or where he came from, and now the birds 
 were gone, and our much coveted cinnamon was, to all 
 appearance, a second time, if not for ever, again beyond 
 our reach ! Great was the lamentation over this 
 mishap ; Mr. M tried to console our chagrin by telling 
 us the bird would have done us no good, as it had been 
 kept in too warm a place, and was already beginning 
 to moult, and consequently would not breed this season. 
 No doubt what he said was in some measure true, but 
 we felt it was but sorry comfort after all. We had set 
 our hearts upon having so rare and beautiful a specimen 
 of canaria, and just as we thought we had secured the 
 prize there came the unexpected " slip betwixt the cup 
 and the lip !" 
 
 Time passed on, but instead of bringing balm to our 
 wounded feelings, it rather increased our grief. The 
 more we thought about the matter, the more beautiful 
 
60 The Canary. 
 
 did our imagination paint the lost one in our eyes, and 
 the more convinced we became that we should nevei 
 look upon her like again. We tried to think that as 
 there was " more fish still in the sea than ever came 
 out of it/' so it might be with the feathered tribe, and 
 we might therefore yet retrieve our loss. Weeks glided 
 away when, passing down a street in a distant part of 
 the town bent on other business, Judy and I espied 
 another bird-dealer's shop, when the thought occurred 
 to us to inquire if they had any cinnamon canaries on 
 sale. At first the reply was in the negative, but on 
 our lingering and repeating the question, the man began 
 to scratch his head, and think over the matter, and 
 then turning short raund, and reaching down a cage 
 full of birds immediately behind him, he added in a 
 way that gave us to understand he should not give 
 himself much trouble about the matter, he thought 
 there was a hen of this kind among them, which assu- 
 redly there was. The birds were wretchedly dirty and 
 looked very miserable and forlorn through long neglect, 
 but a glance showed us the bird we were in search of. 
 There could be no mistake about the matter. Though 
 she was now quite changed and hardly recognisable 
 from filth, we felt sure that it was the very bird we had 
 seen at Mr. M 's shop, and in the market some weeks 
 before, as she had a peculiar narrow white stripe at the 
 back of her head, something like that of a young 
 cuckoo. Judy recognised her at once, but prudently 
 kept her own counsel, only giving me a significant look 
 and nudge. Besides, 011 closely inspecting the others 
 we further recognised two of her companions as well, so 
 
Our Cinnamons. 61 
 
 without betraying our inexpressible delight, we care- 
 lessly asked the price, which was now only two shillings. 
 We made a slight demur on account of the wretchedness 
 of her condition, and bid eighteenpence, but seeing the 
 man would not take less, and that he had actually put 
 the birds back again on the shelf, we at length gave an 
 apparently reluctant assent to his terms, though nothing 
 was further from our thoughts than a third time losing 
 the opportunity of securing such a prize. We threw 
 down the money on the counter, and the bird was soon 
 put into a bag, when Judy and I hastened out of the 
 shop with mutual congratulations on our good luck. 
 Not only had we got the bird we had so much desired, 
 but we had obtained her at a less price than we could 
 have bought her at Mr. M s s, or in the market where 
 we had first seen her. 
 
 " She was a phantom of delight 
 When first she gleamed upon my sight ; 
 A lovely apparition, sent 
 To be a moment's ornament; 
 Her eyes as stars of twilight fair ; 
 Like twilight too, her dusky hair; 
 But all things else about her drawn, 
 From May-time and the cheerful dawn ; 
 A dancing shape, an image gay, 
 To haunt, to startle, and waylay." 
 
 It was some time before I could meet with a mate 
 suitable for this beautiful and peculiar-coloured bird. 
 We saw four or five at various times, but they were all 
 very common-bred, ill-shaped birds, and nothing 
 approaching to the delicate shade of our own bird. At 
 length I met with a strong, healthy bird, handsomely 
 
62 The Canary. 
 
 marked, and of the colour required, at the German 
 store alluded to in the preceding chapter. He was not 
 altogether what I should have liked, being pied instead 
 of self-coloured like the hen we possessed. Still he 
 was a very handsome bird, very evenly marked on his 
 head, back, and wings, with a reddish fawn, with a 
 white body, set off with patches of golden yellow on his 
 cheeks, throat and rump. He was said to have been 
 bred in Yorkshire, which is very probable, as I have 
 since learned that Barnsley is known among dealers as 
 the place of all others where this particular variety is 
 bred. Although he had been only a few days among 
 the Germans, so apt was he at learning, and so reten- 
 tive his memory, that he acquired a considerable portion 
 of their peculiar song, which he sings most lustily with 
 his own at this present time. From the beauty and 
 excellence of his song, and the delicate hue of his 
 plumage, we named him Seraph and his wife Sylph, 
 and a charming and very singular variety of the canary 
 they are! Take them away from their well-known 
 brethren, and place them in a cage by themselves in 
 any drawing-room in England, and very few of our 
 lady visitors, we will venture to say, would ever dream 
 of their being of the same kith and kin as the yellow 
 specimen so familiar to us all. Whence, then, it may 
 naturally be asked, comes this great difference, and how 
 has it been brought about ? We candidly admit we do 
 not know. All that we can say is that the original 
 stock was of a uniform green, as we have already stated 
 in another chapter, and that the rest are in some way 
 the result of its domestication. A short glance, how- 
 
Our Cinnamons. 6 
 
 ever, of the several theories advanced by various writers 
 may be neither uninteresting nor unprofitable to my 
 young readers, whilst at the same time it may set them 
 thinking upon a subject which has perplexed much wiser 
 heads than our own, and if it serve no other purpose, 
 this will be an advantage in itself. 
 
 About the origin of these several varieties and great 
 difference of colour found in the canary much diversity 
 of opinion, as might naturally be expected from a subject 
 so obscure, exists. Some ascribe it to locality, others 
 to food, and others again to cross-breeding with birds 
 of a kindred tribe. Thus Adamson, in support of the 
 former of these ideas, says, " I have observed that the 
 canary, which becomes white in France, is at Teneriffe 
 of a grey, almost as dark as that of a linnet." Again, 
 Beckstein says that " the grey of its primitive colour 
 darker on the back and greener on the belly, has 
 undergone so many changes from its being domesticated, 
 from the climate, and from the union with birds ana- 
 logous to it (in Italy with the citril-finch, the serin ;. 
 in our country [that is, Germany] with the linnet, the 
 green-finch, the siskin, and the goldfinch), that now we 
 have canaries of all colours. If we had not sufficient 
 proof that canaries came originally from the Fortunate 
 Islands, we should think that the citril-finch, the serin, 
 and the siskin, were the wild stock of this domesticated 
 race. I have seen a bird, whose parent birds were a 
 siskin and serin, which perfectly resembled a variety of 
 the canary, which is called the green. I have also seen 
 mules from a female grey canary in which was no trace 
 of their true parentage. The grey, the yellow, the 
 
-64 TJte Canary. 
 
 white, the blackish, and the chesnut, are the principal 
 varieties, and it is from their combination and from 
 their tints that we derive the numerous varieties that we 
 now possess/' Others again would ascribe the dif- 
 ference to a difference of food, saying that some birds 
 fed entirely- upon hemp-seed have been known to lose 
 their natural colour, and to become black, and that 
 such was proved to be the fact most conclusively by an 
 experiment made upon a nest of young bullfinches, who 
 grew up to be entirely black instead of their usual 
 varied plumage. These gentlemen forget, however, 
 because it is not convenient to remember, that in the 
 case thus so conclusively cited the birds on the very 
 first moulting, after they had had different food, at once 
 regained their natural colour, and thus really demon- 
 strated the fallacy of the theory which they were at first 
 supposed to substantiate. 
 
 That these and all similar notions have not the least 
 foundation in fact, it will be sufficient to observe that 
 the wild birds themselves vary almost as much as the 
 domestic, and yet have necessarily the same food, and 
 that in reality there is no bird in a domesticated state 
 whose food is less various than that of the canary in 
 every country where it is known. But even were 
 such not the case, we challenge the authors and sup- 
 porters of such a fanciful notion to produce a single 
 instance in either bird or beast where any particular 
 food has been known either to change white into yellow, 
 yellow into green, or green into grey, or grey into 
 chesnut, or produced stripes in one case and spots in 
 another. The idea is really too absurd, we think, to be 
 
Our Cinnamons. 65 
 
 entertained for a moment by any one laying claim to 
 the title of a rational creature. 
 
 Equally erroneous is the idea of climate or locality 
 having anything to do with the matter. A.S in the case 
 of the food, so it may be answered, all the varieties are 
 found in every climate and country, and not separately 
 in each. The yellow, the grey, and the chesnut, as well 
 as the green and the white, are found as often in Russia 
 as they are in Italy, or France, or England. Climate r 
 therefore, cannot have any influence in this respect 
 upon the bird, any more than it has upon man himself. 
 " Place an Anglo-Saxon," says a well-known writer on 
 the various races of men,* " with his flaxen hair and 
 blue eyes under the most burning sun, and no length 
 of time will change him or his offspring into a negro. 
 The Saxon of to-day is identical with the Saxon of the 
 most ancient times. They follow the law of hereditary 
 descent; climate exercises no influence over them. 
 Two hundred years of Java, three hundred years of 
 Southern Africa affect them not ; alter their health it 
 may, it does, withering up the frame, rendering th 
 body thin and juiceless, wasting the adipose cellular 
 tissue, relaxing the muscles and injuring the complexion 
 by altering the condition of the blood and secretions ; 
 all this may be admitted, but they produce no per- 
 manent results. The Saxon is fair, not because he 
 lives in a temperate or cold climate, but because he is a 
 Saxon. The Esquimaux are nearly black, yet they live 
 amidst eternal snows ; the Tasmanian is, if possible, 
 darker than the Negro, under a climate as mild as 
 * Dr. Knox. 
 
 5 
 
66 TJie Canary. 
 
 England. Climate has no influence in permanently 
 altering the varieties or races of men ; destroy them it 
 may and does, but it cannot convert them into any 
 other race." Now if this be true, as we think it un- 
 questionably is, in the case of man, it must be equally 
 true of the feathered tribes in general, and of the 
 canary in particular. Climate, therefore, we repeat 
 cannot have anything to do with the alteration of their 
 plumage, any more than the food which they eat, and 
 to which, it must again be observed, they are all equally 
 exposed alike. 
 
 Still more preposterous is the idea that all this variety 
 in their colour has been produced by cross-breeding 
 with other varieties of the Finch tribe. We do not 
 doubt for a moment the possibility of breeding a mule 
 between a canary and a linnet, a canary and a goldfinch, 
 or a canary and a siskin, for we ourselves have both 
 seen and done it. Nor do we doubt that occasionally 
 cases may be found where these hybrids have bred 
 again, for the Rev. Mr. Wood, in his delightful book 
 entitled ' My Feathered Friends/ gives the result of 
 two interesting experiments he made upon the subject, 
 and in which he succeeded in obtaining a young bird 
 from a hybrid canary-goldfinch paired with a pure hen 
 canary, and also another from a pair who were them- 
 selves both hybrids. But still, what we say is this, 
 that these are only to be regarded as exceptions to the 
 general rule and law of nature, and that their very 
 rarity only makes the rule the stronger. There is no 
 abrogation, and never can be, of that wise law which 
 Providence has ordained alike for every animal under 
 
Our Cinnamons. 67 
 
 the sun, and which restricts species to species and 
 stamps sterility on every hybrid. If there be one thing 
 more certain than another, it is undoubtedly the fact 
 that there is no such thing to be found in nature as a 
 hybrid or mixed race springing up, and becoming a 
 permanent variety. Even in the case of man, with all 
 the arts and appliances of civilisation, and therefore with 
 the most favorable circumstances to aid him, it has 
 ever been found impossible. After a few generations 
 they either die out altogether, or the dominant race 
 regains its natural purity. How much less, then, can 
 we suppose such a thing to have taken place in the 
 case of the canary, delicate and tender as it is by nature, 
 and impossible as it is to further it by the aid of man. 
 No ; neither cross-breeding, nor food, nor climate, we 
 may rest assured, has the least influence in changing 
 a green bird into a white, a brown into a yellow, or a 
 chesnut to a grey, any more than it has in changing 
 spots into stripes, or stripes into spots. As yet, man is 
 ignorant of these mysterious changes, though in the 
 pride of his intellect he would fain ascribe a reason for 
 all he sees. This, however, seems to be beyond his 
 reach ; such knowledge is too high for him ; he cannot 
 attain unto it ; beyond the fact that so many different 
 varieties exist he positively knows nothing. It is a 
 sealed page in the book of nature, which he cannot 
 decipher or interpret. To those, therefore, who would 
 fain be wise above what is written, we would say " Stand 
 still, and consider the wondrous works of God." Yes, 
 we would ask all such in the sublime language of Holy 
 Writ " Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words 
 
68 
 
 The Canary. 
 
 without knowledge? Gavest thou the goodly wings 
 unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the 
 ostrich ? Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch 
 her wings toward the south ? Doth the eagle mount 
 up at thy command, and make her nest on high ?" 
 
THE BELGIAN CANARY. 
 
 PRINCE CHARMING AND THE CHARMING PRINCESS. 
 
Prince Charming and his Charming Princess. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PRINCE CHARMING AND HIS CHARMING PRINCESS. 
 
 fEBRUARY had now arrived, and with it came 
 a few warm sunshiny days which soon had a 
 visible effect upon our birds, and told us that 
 the sooner we got our full complement together the 
 better. Instead of making them more happy and 
 peacefully inclined, it seemed to stir up all the wildest 
 passions of their nature, as it were, in a moment, so 
 that they were now perpetually quarrelling and fighting 
 with each other. This told us that we must not only 
 separate those birds which we wished to pair with each 
 other, but also that it would soon become positively 
 dangerous to introduce a new member into their society. 
 To do so would be to expose him not merely to the 
 loss of the best part of his wardrobe, but probably of 
 his life ; for when the pairing mania once begins, the 
 canary becomes as pugnacious and savage as any of 
 the feathered tribe. To avoid this risk, all birds that 
 are intended to live together should be introduced not 
 later than the first or second week in February, when 
 usually the first symptoms of spring begin to appear. 
 Up to this time our own birds had lived together in the 
 most peaceful harmony possible, but two or three days 
 of warm sunshine which occurred, as we have said, 
 about this date, had the effect of converting the whole 
 
70 The Canary. 
 
 establishment into a scene of unceasing uproar and 
 confusion. We had still to find, however, another pair 
 and a half to make up what we had decided should be 
 the full complement of our number. What kind or 
 variety these should be we had not positively determined, 
 bm left it an open question to be decided by the chance 
 and circumstance of the hour. One day I saw in the 
 shop one of the' richest and deepest orange-coloured 
 birds I ever looked upon, and Mr. M strongly re- 
 commended me to buy him. I hesitated, however, 
 about the price, which was ten shillings, not because I 
 thought the bird too dear, but because I wished to 
 spend as little more money over them as I could. We 
 thought over the matter for a day or two, when we 
 finally decided to stretch a point for the occasion, and 
 for this purpose Judy and I went down that day to buy 
 him. Alas ! we had driven the matter off too long, 
 for just as we had entered the shop, Mr. M was tying 
 up the very bird we had come to purchase, in a parcel 
 for another purchaser who had just bought him. We 
 were much disappointed, and very vexed at our own 
 delay, but it was of no use, the bird was actually sold. 
 He was of the Belgian breed, and though not possess- 
 ing very great development of shoulder, or points for a 
 fancier's eye, yet one of the most beautiful and elegant 
 birds I ever saw. In colour, he was a deep orange, not 
 the least inclining to yellow, but quite red, whilst his 
 feathers were of that silky flossy texture which, when 
 met with in full perfection, is the climax of beauty. 
 In so saying, however, I would not be understood as 
 advocating the choice of a weak-feathered bird, or as> 
 
Prince Charming and his Charming Princess. 71 
 
 depreciating the hard and close-feathered kind, which, 
 as a general rule, I think are to be preferred. The 
 latter are much more easily obtained, and got into fine 
 feather than the former; but if you can get a bird 
 whose plumage is this flossy texture and not broken, 
 or thin and weak, but lying on it like a heavy piece of 
 wool, and of the colour I have described above, we 
 think you should not neglect the opportunity of pur- 
 chasing if you wish to have a beautiful canary ; at all 
 events, we sorely repented neglecting the chance we 
 had, and have never seen another since at all to equal 
 him in the richness of his colour. 
 
 Weeks passed away without seeing anything that 
 particularly attracted our notice, or incited our in- 
 clination to purchase, when at length Mr. M bought 
 a large lot of birds of a breeder in Yorkshire, and 
 amongst them a bird very nearly resembling the one 
 we have just described. Indeed, with the exception 
 that he was not quite so deep in his colour, he was all 
 that we could desire. Though of the Belgian breed, 
 and very beautiful, he was not what would be called a 
 fancier's bird, having no great development in that in- 
 dispensable point, the shoulder. Still, take him for all 
 in all, with the exception of the bird just mentioned, I 
 think he is as handsome a canary as I ever saw in my 
 life. Full seven inches in length, he has the appear- 
 ance and drooping shape of a peacock when at rest, 
 the curving outlines of his body being of the most 
 elegant and tapering form ; with a head like a snake 
 and an eye like a hawk, he bears himself proudly 
 amongst his fellows, over whom he exercises a lordly 
 
72 The Canary. 
 
 sway, showing unmistakably the high nobility of his 
 birth. Of a pure rich golden yellow, at times deep- 
 ening into orange, and wearing a long beautifully got- 
 up curly shirt frill all down his breast, he stands out 
 "inrivalled and conspicuous amongst all the rest for both 
 elegance of .. form and beauty of colour. We bestowed 
 on him, as was most due, the honorable and appro- 
 priate title of " Prince Charming," a name as appro- 
 priate as it is deserved, for a very charming fellow I 
 assure my readers he is. At the same time, we pro- 
 cured for him a fitting spouse, in the person of a high- 
 bred, elegant little lady, who accordingly assumed the 
 title of " The Charming Princess," whom he almost 
 immediately espoused, and with whom he has ever since 
 lived on the most affectionate and loving terms. We 
 hope their union may be blessed by as large and nume- 
 rous and as happy a family as that of our beloved 
 queen, and that the young princes and princesses which 
 may spring from Prince Charming and his charming 
 princess may not only do credit to their parents, but 
 hand down the race another generation with increasing 
 "beauty and honour to themselves. 
 
 We had now only one bird without a mate, viz., our 
 old original maiden lady purchased to replace the one 
 that died first given to Judy by her granny. She had 
 been so long unwedded, and seemed so little disposed 
 to change her state of single blessedness, that we had 
 "well nigh left her to her fate. Indeed, she was gene- 
 rally considered as a confirmed spinster, and seemed 
 rather to pride herself in keeping aloof from all inter- 
 course with any of the gentlemen of her race. In fact, 
 
Prince Charming and Ms Charming Princess. 73 
 
 if any of the latter through politeness offered her a 
 hemp seed, or other little delicate attention, she either 
 pointedly resented their advances, or sullenly took her- 
 self off to another quarter of the cage, evidently affronted 
 at their presumption. With the Lizards, the York- 
 shire, the London, or the cinnamon birds she would not 
 associate at all, and was always, whilst in their com- 
 pany, mopish and dull. But taking her away from 
 these, and placing her in company with the Belgian 
 and Belgian-bred birds, she all at once became visibly 
 more lively and sociable, so that I thought it a pity so 
 much loveliness should be " born to blush unseen, and 
 waste its fragrance on the desert air." 
 
 Observing this peculiarity in her disposition, and re- 
 membering how the proverb said that " birds of a fea- 
 ther always flock together/' I at once got a clue to guide 
 me in the choice of her mate. She was evidently of 
 Belgian extraction herself, so I determined at once to 
 buy the first mealy coloured, or, as they are called by 
 fanciers, buff Belgian cock that I liked for her lord. 
 This we soon afterwards accomplished at Mr. M 's, 
 making up eight pairs of very different and beautiful 
 birds. Our last purchase proved a charming bird, of 
 very amiable disposition and sociable manners, taking 
 seed from our hand, and repaying us with a flood of 
 song, drooping his wings the while like some angelic 
 spirit about to soar aloft to heaven. Very beautiful is 
 it to see his quivering pinions bending in a graceful 
 curving arch towards his breast, as dancing with delight 
 he greets you with a passionate address, and 
 
 ' Shakes out of his little throat floods of delicious music." 
 
74 The Canary. 
 
 Being of an aristocratic order we gave him at once 
 the title of " The Marquis/' and without any further 
 ceremony introduced him to his future bride. Fortu- 
 nately, the lady proved not insensible to his charms, 
 but after a short bashfulness necessary to the occasion, 
 accepted him as a favoured lover. The courtship was 
 soon completed, and the lovely Dickey consented to 
 change her name to " Daisy/' and so cheated those who 
 had looked upon her as the single old maid of the 
 family. Great was the rejoicing on the occasion of the 
 wedding which thus relieved the lady from a somewhat 
 unenviable position, and at the same time secured to 
 the gentleman an amount of domestic bliss and comfort 
 which poor bachelors cannot possibly have the faintest 
 idea of. The change was highly beneficial to both 
 parties ; Daisy became as happy and sprightly as the 
 best, though she had long been dull and mopish as one 
 deserted and forlorn, whilst the Marquis was the gayest 
 of the gay. As we do not suppose any are old maids 
 from choice, for the benefit of the bachelors we will 
 only sing the praises of a thrifty wife, and advise all 
 such to get one as soon as they possibly can. 
 
 " I am a cheerful fellow, altho' a married man, x 
 And in this age of folly pursue a saving plan : 
 Though wives are thought expensive, yet who can live alone ? 
 Then since they are Dear creatures, 'tis best to have but one. 
 My choice discovers clearly my prudence and my taste, 
 I've a very little wife, with a very little waste. 
 
 "Marriage is a draught we take for better or for worse, 
 And wise is he who can prevent the drafts upon his purse ; 
 But evils are much lessened when wives are well inclined ; 
 For if they come across us, they shape them to our mind : 
 
Prince Charming and his Charming Princess. 75 
 
 When matters are well managed, no need to be strait-laced, 
 You may with little danger increase the little waste. 
 
 *' Tho* Spousy's so discreet, still each fashion she'll display, 
 Her bosom, Heaven bless her ! is open as the day j 
 Her garment (may I venture a simile to beg ?) 
 Hangs loosely from her shoulder like a gown upon a peg ; 
 Yet fearful of expenses, she shortens them so small 
 And if she goes on shortening, there'll be no waste at all." 
 
76 The Canary. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 OUR TURNCRESTS. 
 
 [HERE is yet another variety of our favorite 
 songster which I must not omit to mention, or 
 which, perhaps, more correctly speaking, may 
 be found as it were by accident in most or all the kinds 
 we have named, to wit, the Turncrest. With some 
 people these are great favorites, more especially with 
 the lower classes of bird fanciers from whom anything 
 curious or novel appears to possess a great charm. 
 Their peculiarity consists in having a crest of feathers 
 on the top of the head turned, as it were, the wrong 
 way, and hanging down over the beak and eyes, some- 
 thing like an old-fashioned wool mop, or, if the asso- 
 ciation be not too irreverent, like the crop of a Cister- 
 cian monk. In general, as might be expected from the 
 above remarks, they will be found most plentiful 
 amongst the common low-bred birds of the country 
 districts, and associated with the greatest amount of 
 ugliness in the outline of their figure. To any one 
 with a cultivated taste or with a natural eye for beauty 
 of form, this condemns them at once ; but in propor- 
 tion as you can find this elegant appendage in birds of 
 more aristocratic breed, such as in the Belgians; of 
 course, this objection loses its point, and you will have 
 ^a bird of peculiar elegance and beauty. Such an one 
 
THE TURN' CHEATED CANARY. 
 
 KING PEPIN. 
 
Our Turncrests. 7T 
 
 was our own King Pepin whose portrait we have given 
 at the head of this chapter. Of gigantic stature and 
 Herculean proportion of limb, he united singular excel- 
 lence in the gracefulness of his contour, with great 
 richness of colour. But such birds are by no means 
 common, few having so great a degree of Belgian blood 
 in their veins, which can alone give the snake-like head, 
 long neck, and taper form of body peculiar to them 
 alone. The majority we fear will be found to possess 
 the worst properties of the commonest English birds, 
 and, therefore, by no means to be considered an acqui- 
 sition. On the contrary, if all such were to be exter- 
 minated by act of parliament, or a canary jockey club, 
 or any other power to-morrow, we hold it would be one- 
 of the greatest boons that could possibly be conferred 
 on the canary-loving community. We might theK 
 start afresh with birds of superior form, and breed only 
 from those who united in themselves elegance of form 
 with beauty of colour, when in a few years we doubt 
 not the canary of England would be as superior to 
 those of all other lands, as the English horse has been 
 made to excel every other in the known world. This 
 may seem Utopian, but it is not so. It is only from 
 ignorance and the business of breeders being left for 
 the most part in the hands of some of the most uncul- 
 tivated taste, that the present multitude of ill-shaped 
 ugly birds that are everywhere to be seen have come into 
 being. Let any one once see a high bred Belgian bird, 
 and note the elegance of his shape, and then contrast 
 it with the stumpy English specimens he has hitherto 
 been breeding, and we will answer for it he will never 
 
78 The Canary. 
 
 be satisfied again with the latter. To the great mass 
 of people, however, the former is a bird still unknown ; 
 but we trust now -that the show at Sydenham is an 
 established reality, his excellences will soon become 
 more widely known, and his breed be sought after to 
 improve our own. Associated with this breed, the 
 Turncrest will then be indeed a beautiful acquisition, as 
 may be seen from the portrait of our own King Pepiu, 
 and to be desired will then need only to be seen. 
 
 In breeding birds of this description, most people in 
 order to obtain the greatest development of crest pos- 
 sible, would naturally select a male and female remark- 
 able for the size and shape of this elegant appendage, 
 and expect to see their offspring still more highly fa- 
 voured in this respect than themselves. But experience 
 teaches otherwise, and emphatically says that if we do 
 thus, the result will in all probability be in diametrical 
 opposition to our wishes. All writers, and every breeder 
 I have spoken to upon the subject, unanimously declare 
 that if we pair two crested birds together, the majority 
 of their offspring, so far from being more highly favoured 
 than their parents, will absolutely be more or less de- 
 ficient in this appendage so much desired, if their heads 
 are not positively bald ! Why this should be the case 
 I cannot tell, nor could I ever obtain any satisfactory 
 explanation of the matter, or, indeed, any reason at all 
 beyond that it is so, which, therefore, I must beg my 
 readers to take as conclusive upon the subject, adding 
 that I myself have never personally put the matter to 
 the test, which, however, after the assurances I have 
 received from practical men, I should be sorry to doubt. 
 
Our Turncrests. 79 
 
 To obtain birds with fine crests, the practice is to select 
 one parent only with this appendage, which signifies little, 
 though for my part I should prefer it to be the hen, as we 
 know from many careful experiments that have been 
 made, that it is the male that contributes for the most part 
 the bones and what maybe termed the locomotive organs, 
 and the female the internal organs on which depend the 
 skin, and, consequently, the feathers, which, of course, 
 form the crest. As in the human being, experience 
 often shows that minds formed of the most opposite 
 attributes more forcibly attract each other than those 
 which appear cast in the same mould, so we suppose a 
 similar effect is produced in the bodily organism of our 
 pets, and that in the case of our turncrests the rule of 
 contraries is more potent than the rule of harmonies. 
 The greater the contrast the greater the fascination, and 
 the more likelihood of success. In this respect, ex- 
 tremes shall meet, and a beauteous offspring of crested 
 birds shall spring from a crested cock and smooth- 
 headed hen, or from a crested hen and smooth-headed 
 cock, which reminds me of that striking contrast drawn 
 by an anonymous poet between man and woman in the 
 following very beautiful lines : 
 
 " Man is the rugged, lofty pine, 
 
 That frowns on many a wave-beat shore ; 
 Woman, the slender, graceful vine, 
 Whose circling tendrils round it twine, 
 And deck its rough bark sweetly o'er. 
 
 " Man is the rock whose towering crest 
 
 Nods o'er the mountain's barren side; 
 Woman, the soft and mossy nest 
 That loves to clasp the sterile breast, 
 
 And wreathe its brow in verdant pride. 
 
80 The Canary. 
 
 " Man is the cloud of coming storm, 
 
 Dark as the raven's murky plume, 
 Save where the sunbeam, light and warm, 
 Of woman's soul and woman's form, 
 
 Beams brightly o'er the gathering gloom. 
 
 " Yes, lovely sex, to you 'tis given 
 
 To rule our hearts with angel sway; 
 Blend with each woe a blissful leaven 
 Change earth into an embryo heaven 
 And sweetly smile our cares away." 
 
THE GERMAN CANARY 
 
 THE DOMINIE. 
 
The Dominie and the Germans. 81 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE DOMINIE AND THE GERMANS. 
 
 ]E had now completed our stock of canaries for 
 breeding, having eight pairs, four for each com- 
 partment of our aviary. We had thus speci- 
 mens of every kind of breed, and almost every variety 
 of colour. Belgians with their fine orange yellow and 
 peculiar form, lizards with their beautifully speckled 
 plumage of grey and yellow green ; the London fancy 
 with its burnished golden body and jet black wings and 
 tail ; Yorkshire spangles with their gaily marked heads 
 and wings ; the pure grass green, the mealy white or 
 buff, and the beautiful chesnut, fawn, or cinnamon, as 
 they are more commonly called. We had thus far been 
 highly successful in realising the plan we had sketched 
 out for ourselves, and now possessed birds of almost 
 every form and colour. To make our establishment 
 quite complete, there was one thing still wanting, viz., 
 an accomplished vocalist ; for, though we had several 
 very excellent singers amongst our gentlemen canaries, 
 yet their song was only the uncultivated and inartistic 
 ditty of England. But as the time was fast approach- 
 ing when we hoped to have a numerous progeny of 
 young princes and scions of noble blood, we felt it a 
 duty to provide a suitable master for their vocal educa- 
 
82 The Canary. 
 
 tion. As we knew we should look in vain for such 
 among our English birds, we turned to the land of 
 song and music, and sought what we wanted in the 
 fatherland of Germany. 
 
 In respect of song, the German birds are as much 
 superior to those of England, or, indeed, of any country 
 I am acquainted with, as the high-bred Belgian is in 
 form to the little short stumpy canary we see in every 
 market. The reason of this is very simple. On the 
 one hand, the Germans pay great attention, and bestow 
 much pains on the education of these little songsters ; 
 whereas, on the other, the Englishman leaves all to 
 chance, never troubling his head about the matter. 
 With us a bird is left entirely to its own resources, 
 scarcely ever hearing any other note than that of its 
 parent, from one generation to another, so that we need 
 scarcely be surprised to find the same piercing loud and 
 harsh song handed down from father to son without the 
 least change or improvement. Far different is it, how- 
 ever, in Germany, where the breeding of canaries i& 
 quite a trade, and which, therefore, to make it profit- 
 able, requires and receives as much attention and thought 
 as any other. There the greatest pains are taken to 
 teach the young birds an artificial song ; arid such has 
 been their success that it has enhanced their value 
 some twenty per cent. Indeed, were it not that they 
 have no rivals in the matter of song, they would never 
 be able to sell the little ordinary variety, which alone 
 they breed, in England at all. As it is, thousands are 
 now annually imported into our country, and find a 
 ready sale at prices varying from ten to five and twenty 
 
The Dominie and the Germans. 83 
 
 shillings each, which but for their song would not make 
 more than eighteen pence at the most. Instead of the 
 high piercing note continued for some time by the 
 English bird without intermission, rising higher and 
 higher, or modified only by a succession of noisy bursts, 
 the German begins with a low sweet trill, like the 
 sibilating sound of the grasshopper on a summer's eve, 
 and with a silvery sonorous voice regularly descends 
 through all the tones of an octave, introducing from 
 time to time a bell-like succession of notes, or the song 
 of the woodlark and the nightingale as the case may 
 be. So great is the difference between the two, and 
 such is the result of careful painstaking teaching, as 
 compared with the let-alone, give-myself-no-trouble 
 plan adopted by English breeders. 
 
 The same writer who, as I have shown elsewhere, 
 exhibited so much ignorance about the Belgian canary, 
 betrays equal want of knowledge about the German, 
 when he talks about their wholesale manufacture by 
 simply putting English birds into little wooden cages 
 similar to those in which the real Germans are always im- 
 ported. No doubt John Bull is a very stupid creature 
 in many things, but we fancy he is not quite such a fool 
 as to believe such stuff as this. The writer alluded to 
 would have us believe that there is little or no difference 
 between an English bird and a German in the, matter 
 of song, so that a purchaser may be easily imposed 
 upon. All that we can say is, that any one who has once 
 heard any number of German birds sing, could not 
 possibly be taken in, and that a man would hardly be 
 such a fool, we think, as to buy a bird for his song with- 
 
-84 The Canary. 
 
 out hearing him sing. No one, we will venture to say. 
 could be possibly taken in by so silly a trick as the one 
 thus asserted to be commonly practised by dealers. 
 Moreover, for a man to do so systematically, even could 
 similar cages and birds be made and obtained sufficiently 
 cheap to make it worth the while, which I very much 
 doubt, would most assuredly be the shortest way to 
 ruin he could possibly devise. He might, perhaps, 
 succeed in taking in an unwary customer once, but 
 would any one in his senses suffer himself thus to be 
 duped a second time ? Most assuredly not ; but setting 
 this palpable fact aside, we say again the song is utterly 
 unlike that of the English bird in every respect; once 
 heard it can never be mistaken, even by the most un- 
 musical ear ', and to be appreciated it requires, we are 
 sure, only to be heard. If I wanted a bird merely for 
 its song, I would rather give a pound for a German 
 than I would give half-a-crown for an English bird, or, 
 indeed, have one given me for nothing. The best are 
 said to come from the Tyrol and the Hartz, where 
 large numbers are annually reared and sent into every 
 part of Europe. For many years past four Tyrolese 
 alone have been known to bring over as many as sixteen 
 hundred birds, each in a separate little wooden cage 
 about six inches square, in which he has to travel more 
 than one thousand miles, and live till he is sold to some 
 purchaser in a dealer's shop in England. The trade in- 
 creases steadily almost every year, as their song is ap- 
 preciated by the English public, and their price main- 
 tains its position in the market, for almost every pro- 
 prietor of a gin-palace finds it to his interest to have 
 
The Dominie and the Germans. 85- 
 
 one or two in his place, so great is their attraction in 
 the eyes of the people who are thus privileged to hear 
 them sing. 
 
 Observing that Seraph, whom we purchased from a 
 German dealer, had, though full-grown, acquired in a 
 very short time the song of the German birds with 
 whom he had been only accidentally associated, I felt 
 persuaded that we had only to get a good songster from 
 the fatherland, and to place our young birds under his 
 tuition, and they would soon be as proficient as their 
 teacher. I determined, therefore, to get one the first 
 opportunity I might have, and at all events make the 
 experiment. For this we had not long to wait, as 
 about the end of February, Mr. M set off for the con- 
 tinent and brought back a large number of Germans, 
 amongst which were some excellent songsters. As I 
 entered the shop, one gush of melody burst upon my 
 enraptured ear, each bird striving to outdo its neigh- 
 bour in the length and beauty of its song. It seemed, 
 indeed, like the rippling of a thousand streams mur- 
 muring in silvery and liquid tones over some pebbly 
 bed, so exquisitely soft and incessant was the strain. 
 But how amongst so many shall we even attempt to 
 make a choice ? Amongst so much excellence how are 
 we to proceed ? Surely it must be to a great extent a 
 matter of chance whether we get the bird whose song 
 we like most to hear. One bird may be better than 
 another for its melody or its looks, or vice versd, as the 
 case may be how amongst so many obtain the one most 
 to our liking ? Well, there is no chance in the matter, 
 the nature and quality of each bird's song is accurately 
 
86 The Canary. 
 
 known. Each bird has a separate number marked on 
 his cage, which is duly registered in a book, which thus 
 indicates the name of the breeder, the particular cha- 
 racter of the song all his birds are taught, which again 
 is chequed by the private mark of the dealer or dealers 
 through whose hand he has passed. You have, there- 
 fore, only to separate one or two birds at a time, and 
 take them into another room by themselves and hear 
 them sing, and make your choice between the various 
 songs you may hear. Having done this, you may then 
 select from all the birds bearing this number the one 
 whose appearance you like best, and you will obtain 
 without much difficulty the bird you most desire. All 
 bred by one breeder have the same song, and one is 
 better than another only in the accidents of the quality 
 of his voice, the pleasing appearance of his looks or 
 the soundness of his constitution. Most of them are 
 very plain-looking birds, being mealy in their colour, 
 and very short and stumpy in their figure. They are, 
 therefore, very small and inelegant, to use only a mild 
 term, compared with either the Belgian or the more 
 highly -bred birds among the English. " Handsome, 
 however, is he that handsome does," assuredly applies 
 to the little German from the Tyrol or the Hartz, and 
 for a parlour companion he easily bears away the bell. 
 Some talk about his being more delicate than the 
 English, and requiring much more care and attention 
 to keep him in full song. My own experience proves 
 the contrary. My own bird is as hardy, if not the 
 hardiest, of any canary that we have, though kept in 
 a small cage by himself, instead of having a roomy 
 
The Dominie and the Germans. 87 
 
 aviary for exercise. Moreover, his food has been of the 
 simplest and most ordinary kind, viz., common canary 
 seed mixed with a little rape, with now and then a 
 few hemp for a relish, or a bit of apple or lettuce as 
 the season may be, and a bit of sopped toast every 
 morning as we sit down to breakfast. He has never 
 been either sick or sorry, not even whilst moulting, 
 whilst his song is almost incessant all day long, singing 
 even at night by candle-light, waking up even at mid- 
 night for the purpose whenever he is placed upon the 
 table. I cannot, therefore, believe that they are at all 
 more delicate or difficult to keep than any other, but 
 that where ordinary care and attention, in the matter 
 of proper food and temperature are bestowed upon 
 them, they will be found as hardy as any of our 
 English, and much more hardy- than the Belgian 
 varieties we have yet met with. 
 
 As I intended ours to be a parlour bird, I naturally 
 desired to unite beauty of appearance and excellence of 
 song in the same bird. In this I happily succeeded, 
 choosing a very sprightly, strong-looking little bird, 
 prettily marked on the head and back, with rich 
 chesnut brown, who happened to be an excellent 
 singer as well. Highly pleased with my bargain I 
 hasten to transport him home, when he immediately 
 treated us to a song. The success of his first debut 
 was complete ! all who heard him were enraptured 
 with his performance, and pronounced him to be truly 
 *a master in his art. He thus graduated in high honours 
 as a Doctor of Music, and was at once elected as pro- 
 fessor and tutor to the young princes and nobles in our 
 
88 The Canary. 
 
 aviary. The office conferred upon him as well a name 
 which he continues to maintain with the dignity due 
 to his position. Without more to-do, then, let me 
 introduce to my readers, the now famous and much- 
 admired " Dominie." 
 
 ' Much did I grieve, on that ill-fated morn, 
 When I was first to school reluctant borne j 
 Severe I thought the dame, though oft she tried 
 To soothe my swelling spirits when I sighed: 
 And oft, when harshly she reproved, I wept, 
 To my lone corner, broken-hearted crept, 
 And thought of tender home, where anger never kept. 
 
 " But soon inured to alphabetic toils, 
 Alert I met the dame with jocund smiles ; 
 First at the form, my task for ever true, 
 A little favorite rapidly I grew ; 
 And oft she stroked my head with fond delight* 
 Held me a pattern to the dunce's sight, 
 And, as she gave my diligence its praise, 
 Talked of the honours of my future days." 
 
On Mules. 89* 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ON MULES. 
 
 [OR some people anything that is incongruous 
 or grotesque, or that in any way is a departure 
 from the ordinary laws of nature, appears to 
 possess a peculiar charm. This is more especially 
 observable in the less educated classes of society, who 
 delight in the monsters usually exhibited at country 
 fairs, and for whom what may be termed a freak of 
 nature has a hundred times more attraction than the 
 most perfect form, or the greatest combination of excel- 
 lence and quality. Nor is this so much to be wondered 
 at, for to appreciate the latter qualities implies a mind 
 educated to admire, and able to compare and weigh 
 whatever is superior to the common standard, whereas 
 to admire the former requires only the stupid gaze 
 of astonishment and wonder. Hence the rage among 
 such people for everything that is out of the ordinary 
 track of nature, and their frequent attempts to mar her 
 handiwork by mating birds of different species with 
 each other. A mule or hybrid for them has a charm 
 and value far beyond the most perfect specimen of a 
 true bred bird, though neither in colour, shape, or song 
 can it possibly have the least claim to be compared. 
 With such tastes and feelings it is needless to say we 
 have little sympathy ; still, as some of my readers, by 
 
90 The Canary. 
 
 no means open to the charge implied in the above 
 remarks, may desire to make a few experiments for 
 themselves, we will say a few words upon the most 
 desirable birds to begin with, and the results most likely 
 to be attained. 
 
 According to Bechstein, the species which succeed 
 best with the canary are the serin, the citril,the siskin, 
 the goldfinch, and the linnet. The greenfinch, the 
 chaffinch, the bullfinch, and yellowhammer, he adds, 
 have been tried, but the difficulty augments with the 
 difference of species and food ; for example I have 
 never seen a male canary very fond of a female yellow- 
 hammer, nor a male of the latter kind of a female 
 canary, though the plumage may be selected so as to 
 offer a striking resemblance. An ardent bullfinch 
 will sometimes yield to the allurements of a very 
 ardent hen canary. I have myself witnessed it ; but 
 with every care it is seldom the eggs are very fruitful, 
 and produce young. Dr. Jassy, however, writes me 
 from Frankfort that he has obtained mules of a bullfinch 
 and canary, by making other canaries sit on the eggs, 
 and bring up the young, and that this plan is pursued 
 in Bohemia. My bullfinch, he adds, is so attached to 
 the female canary that he mourns all the time they are 
 separated, and cannot bear any other bird. 
 
 Although Bechstein enumerates the yellow-hammer 
 as a mate for the canary in the list given above, we 
 ourselves can amply bear out the qualifying remark he 
 makes as to the unlikelihood of a match as we have 
 repeatedly made the experiment with birds between 
 whom there was very little difference of colour, and 
 
On Mules. 91 
 
 always with the like result. Although this,, at first 
 sight may seem somewhat strange, it is readily accounted 
 for when we remember that the yellowhammer is not a 
 finch, hut a bunting, and consequently that the two 
 birds belong to two different species which have little 
 or no affinity with each other. 
 
 The same remark holds good also with regard to the 
 greenfinch, which together with its congener, the bull- 
 finch, although commonly called finches, do not belong 
 to the finch tribe, but are members of the gros-beak 
 species, which we think is sufficient to put it also out 
 of the category of desirable or likely mates for the 
 canary. 
 
 The serin, the citril, and the siskin, not being common 
 in England, we can say little about, never having tried 
 the two former, whilst we have possessed two of the 
 latter, neither of which ever showed the least signs of 
 mating with any of our canaries, with whom they were 
 constantly kept. That others have been more successful 
 we do not doubt, but we think we may safely say that 
 the chance of success with all these is at the best but 
 indifferent and remote. A mule between a canary and 
 a citril finch, if the former is neither white nor yellow, 
 says Bechstein, differs little from the common grey or 
 green canary, except in being more slender, and having 
 the beak shorter and thicker ; while a mule between a 
 siskin and canary, if the mother be a green canary, will 
 resemble a female siskin ; but if she be white or yellow 
 their colours are lighter, yet without differing greatly 
 from those of the siskin, which they always resemble in 
 shape. 
 
9 The Canary. 
 
 We come then at last to the three English finches, 
 viz., the chaffinch, the linnet, and the goldfinch, as 
 being the most likely of any to ensure success, and as 
 being perhaps the most desirable when obtained. 
 Singularly enough, however, common as the chaffinch 
 is amongst- our gardens and orchards we have never 
 met with one that has ever been paired with a canary, 
 and never heard of such a thing as a hybrid produced 
 from them in this country. Here, however, they are 
 not held in the same esteem as in Germany, where, such 
 is the passion for these birds, that men have been known 
 to travel ninety miles from home to take with bird-lime 
 one of these birds, distinguished for its song, and have 
 given one of their cows for a fine songster having what 
 is termed the double trill of the Hartz. We cannot 
 enter into all the niceties of the chaffinch's song, and 
 beautiful as his plumage undoubtedly is when flitting 
 about in our orchards and gardens, it soon loses its 
 freshness and colour in confinement, and hence in 
 England it is little prized and seldom kept, and thus 
 it too may be dismissed as not affording much prospect 
 of success. 
 
 Our choice, then, seems to lie principally between 
 the linnet and the goldfinch, both of which are easily 
 paired with the canary, and from both of which mules 
 are with little difficulty obtained. The offspring of 
 both these mixtures combine more or less the colours 
 of the parents, and participate in the shape of the male 
 linnet or goldfinch, rather than that of the female 
 canary. We need scarcely say, therefore, that the 
 produce of the linnet will always present a heavy 
 
THE YORKSHIRE AND NORWICH CANARIKS. 
 
 HKAUTY AND BUTTERCUP. 
 
On Mules. 93 
 
 stumpy appearance, and consequently be more or less 
 unsightly to the eye that has any perception of beauty 
 of outline, while that of the goldfinch will necessarily 
 have more gracefulness of figure, and a greater variety 
 of plumage. The colour of the former will be the 
 brown of the linnet, perhaps blotched with patches of 
 dingy white, while that of the latter will partake more 
 of the gay livery of the goldfinch with a far greater 
 diversity in its plumage. We ourselves have bred 
 specimens some of which differed little from the male 
 goldfinch, while others have united the beautiful scarlet 
 and orange head of the former, with a body of beautiful 
 and delicate white like a canary. We have seen others 
 of most exquisite shape, and most attractive colour, 
 from which, although no admirers of the mule tribe in 
 general,it were impossible to withhold our meed of praise. 
 " The most beautiful I have seen," says Bechstein, 
 " was greyish ash-colour in the middle of its crest, and 
 silvery white on the rest of its head and nape ; a broad 
 orange border surrounded the beak, and the neck was 
 adorned with a white collar ; the back was dusky grey 
 with black streaks ; the rump white, the under part of 
 the body of a snowy whiteness ; the under tail-coverts 
 the wings, and first quill-feathers white, but the others 
 as well as the coverts, black edged with yellow ; the 
 middle of the wing was also adorned with a beautiful 
 golden yellow spot ; the white tail had a black spot on 
 the sides ; the white beak was tipped with black ; the 
 feet were white. The mother of this beautiful bird 
 was white with a greenish-grey crest. In general one 
 may be sure of fine birds when yellow or white females 
 
94 The Canary. 
 
 are paired with male goldfinches. The song of both 
 the linnet and goldfinch mule is sufficiently pleasing 
 and attractive, while that of all others may be said to 
 be the reverse, which again is a great recommendation 
 in their favour. After all, however, we think the trouble 
 and risk of disappointment are scarcely worth running 
 for the chance of a prize bird, which, like angels' visits, 
 is certain to be few and far between. For one hand- 
 some bird you may safely reckon on a dozen ill- 
 favoured, if not positively ugly. In any case if any one 
 wishes to make the experiment, he must remember 
 that whether he select the serin, the citril, the siskin, 
 yellowhammer, greenfinch, bullfinch, chaffinch, linnet, 
 or goldfinch, to ensure success, the female must always 
 be a canary, and that these must not be old birds 
 caught by the birdcatcher as chance may direct, but be 
 brought up from the nest by hand ; otherwise disap- 
 pointment and failure will be almost certain to result. 
 As an occasional experiment the attempt to obtain birds 
 of this kind will have its charms and attractions for 
 many, but for ourselves we confess we care little for 
 mules in any shape or form. A wise Providence has set 
 the mark of sterility on all such heterogenous offspring, 
 and while it has thus said, as though in displeasure at 
 the attempt to transgress its laws, " Hitherto shalt thou 
 go, and no farther," on the other hand, we read on the 
 first page of Holy Writ how, when God commanded 
 the water to bring forth abundantly every living 
 creature that moveth, and every winged fowl, each was 
 to be " after his kind." In this way alone He bestowed 
 His blessing upon them and commanded them thus to 
 
On Mules. 95 
 
 replenish the earth. " What God hath joined together 
 let no man put asunder," and what he hath put asunder 
 let no man attempt to bring together. 
 
 " God spake : the waters teem with life, 
 
 The tenants of the floods ; 
 The many, coloured winged birds 
 Dart quickly through the woods. 
 High rushes the eagle, 
 
 On fiery wings ; 
 Low hid in the valley, 
 The nightingale sings. 
 
 " God spake : the lion, steer, and horse, 
 
 Spring from the moistened clay, 
 While round the breast of mother earth 
 Bees hum, and lambkins play. 
 They give life to the mountain, 
 
 They swarm on the plain, 
 But their eyes fix'd on earth, 
 Must for ever remain. 
 
 " God spake : He look'd on earth and heaven, 
 
 With mild and gracious eye : 
 In His own image man He made, 
 And gave Him dignity. 
 
 He springs from the dust, 
 The Lord of the earth, 
 The chorus of heaven, 
 
 Exult at his birth. 
 And now creation's work was ended, 
 
 Man raised his head, he spoke; 
 The day of rest by God ordain'd, 
 The sabbath morning broke." 
 
96 The Canary. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR BREEDING, TIME, MANNER, AND 
 OBJECT OF PAIRING. 
 
 |AVING thus completed our stock of birds, the 
 time was now at hand for their proper assort- 
 ment. Notwithstanding the popular rural 
 tradition that on St. Valentine's Day each bird of the 
 air chooses its mate, and that we had the express 
 license of old Chaucer to put up the banns of union on 
 so auspicious a day, we decline to begin so early. 
 Though as anxious as any one to commence these im- 
 portant preliminaries, and though the weather just then 
 happened to be peculiarly favorable and tempting, we 
 thought it better to wait a little longer, for fear we 
 might find to our cost that in the more haste there is 
 often the worst speed. In vain did the oldest of our 
 English poets proclaim his mandate in our ears, saying, 
 
 " Foules take heed of my sentence, I pray, 
 
 And for your own ease in fordring of your need, 
 As fast as I may speak, I will me speed : 
 Ye know well how, on St. Valentine's day, 
 
 By nay statute, and through my governaunce, 
 Ye do chuse your mates, and after flic away 
 With him, as I move you with plesaunce." 
 
 We do not believe anything is to be gained by com- 
 mencing operations so early, for even should a person 
 
Preparations for Breeding, fyc. D 1 * 
 
 succeed in getting young birds hatched by the begin- 
 ning or middle of March, they are invariably delicate 
 and tender, and difficult to rear. Moreover, should the 
 weather change and become cold and frosty, as it not 
 unfrequently does about this time, not only are the 
 young birds almost sure to perish from want of the 
 necessary warmth of the sun, but the old birds are 
 unduly weakened by their exertions, and much loss of 
 time and disappointment are the result. In the choice 
 of time for pairing young birds, much, of course, must 
 depend upon circumstances. If the weather is very 
 fine and your birds strong and in good condition, the 
 latter end of March or beginning of April may be se- 
 lected if you are very anxious to begin ; but as a general 
 rule if you wait till the middle of the latter month, it 
 will be quite early enough. Young birds require great 
 warmth, and, it must be remembered, warmth of the sun, 
 too, in order to develop their feathers properly, which 
 fact alone, if borne in mind, will tell you when is the 
 most proper time to begin. Any how, we may dismiss 
 the popular tradition of St. Valentine's day as a popular 
 fallacy, more honoured in the breach than in the ob- 
 servance. It may be all very well for poets to sing 
 about this festive day, and explicitly declare, as lago 
 does, how thereon 
 
 " The tuneful choir, in amorous strains, 
 
 Accost their feathered loves ; 
 While each fond mate, with equal pains, 
 The tender suit approves." 
 
 but it will scarcely do for practical men in this matter- 
 of-fact age, to heed their strain. In such a case, I 
 
 7 
 
98 The Canary. 
 
 would rather give the somewhat unpalatable advice 
 which Crabbe has given on a similar occasion, and say, 
 
 " Disposed to wed, e'en while you hasten, stay, 
 There's great advantage in a small delay." 
 
 In order to bring about a match as we desired, for our 
 birds were all together, a little manoeuvring and man- 
 agement became necessary, or our plan of operations 
 would very probably have been marred. The manner 
 of bringing this about we accomplished in the following 
 way, which, as it proved both simple and effective, I 
 would recommend to others. Having fixed upon the 
 birds we wished to pair together, we separated them 
 from the rest, placing them by themselves in two dif- 
 ferent cages in another room. For a couple of days 
 we hung one bird above the other, in such a manner as 
 the one could only just get a glimpse of his neighbour. 
 This excited their curiosity, and caused them to begin 
 to call to each other, and at the same time made them 
 more desirous than they would otherwise have been, to 
 form an acquaintance with their unknown friend. Very 
 droll it was to watch their manoeuvres to accomplish 
 this desirable object, and try to overcome every diffi- 
 culty in the way. While the lady below clung to the 
 sides and roof of her cage, the gentleman above stretched 
 out its neck to its utmost length, if perchance he might 
 obtain a glimpse of her charming person. To obtain a 
 more perfect sight of his intended bride, the latter 
 would now descend to the floor of his cage, and walk 
 on tip-toe, looking with the intensest gaze over its ledge, 
 and now mount to the topmost wires of the roof, which, 
 alas ! improved his position but little. Then he would 
 
Preparations for Breeding, Sfc. 99 
 
 drop down to his ordinary perch and serenade her with 
 a song, recounting, no doubt, in enraptured strains all 
 the charming qualities of her person and the intolerable 
 sorrows of his state. Then she would answer with a 
 chirp, as though she would assure him she had no ob- 
 jection to his suit, when again he would go his rounds 
 as before. The third day, knowing how "hope de- 
 ferred maketh the heart sick," and that it will not do 
 to trifle with the affections thereof too long, we placed 
 the two cages side by side, when for several hours they 
 were permitted to enjoy a cozy tete-a-tete through the 
 wires. Loth to lose so golden an opportunity, the gen- 
 tleman, feeling that " a faint heart never wins a fair 
 lady," soon popped the question to his mistress, who 
 in reply twittered out a bashful assent to his suit, when 
 a low sweet warbling declared the engagement com- 
 plete. The doors were then opened ; he hopped into 
 her apartment, and she accompanied him back to his, 
 when having seen all that there was to be seen, and 
 partaken of the daintiest morsels of his larder, they 
 retire to bill and coo together at their leisure, till their 
 happiness is complete. Substituting the cage and aviary 
 for the meadow and the spray, we may apply the lines 
 of the poet to their case. 
 
 " With cheerful hop from spray to spray, 
 
 They sport along the meads, 
 In social bliss together stray 
 Where love or fancy leads. 
 
 Through spring's gay scenes each happy pair 
 
 Their fluttering joys pursue ; 
 Its various charms and produce share, 
 
 For ever kind and true." 
 
100 The Canary. 
 
 Having thus spoken of the time and manner of 
 pairing, we would now say a word upon the object to be 
 kept in view. With many persons a canary is a canary, 
 and so that young birds are produced they care not 
 what they are ; but this plan, if such it can be called, 
 not only necessarily prevents the attainment of excel- 
 lence, but destroys, we think, half the interest and en- 
 joyment of the occupation. In breeding canaries, as 
 in all other things, the axiom of Dr. Johnson, " that 
 whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well," 
 should ever be borne in mind. Were it only acted 
 upon, we should not see the number of common little, 
 ugly marked, ill-shaped birds we do, but all would be 
 more or less like the prize birds, larger in size, elegant 
 in shape, and rich and regular in colour. Although, 
 as in the case of cattle in the agricultural world, prizes 
 and exhibitions in London and other large towns have 
 done much to improve the breed of our canaries, yet 
 the progress is slow ; and I fear it will still be many 
 years before their influence is generally felt, and the 
 race of misshapen and irregular blotched birds are 
 extirpated from our land. 
 
 To every breeder, therefore, of this pretty songster, I 
 would say, start out with some definite object in your 
 own mind, and then having settled what this shall be, 
 devote all the skill and knowledge you possess to bring 
 it about. For example, study the varieties of form 
 peculiar to each race, settle in your own mind a high 
 standard of elegance, and then select those birds alone 
 to breed from you think are most likely to realise it in 
 their produce. Do the same as to colour, decide at the 
 
Preparations for Breeding, Sfc. 101 
 
 outset what this shall be, and do all you can to get it 
 pure and distinct. Thus, whether it be pure white, 
 pale lemon, or buff, bright yellow, or deep orange, grey 
 or green, cinnamon or mottled ; in short, whether it be 
 the Lizard, the London fancy, or the Yorkshire spangle, 
 or prize Belgian, do not miss them but keep them sepa- 
 rate, selecting such birds only as are likely in your 
 judgment to produce offspring still more excellent than 
 their parents. This, you may rest assured, will not 
 only be the most likely way of improving the breed to 
 which your special attention may chance to be directed, 
 but will impart an additional interest to the under- 
 taking, which mere chance or promiscuous breeding 
 would fail to yield. In our own case, excellence in 
 colour, and elegance of shape, song being for the most 
 part a matter of after education, were the two points 
 we specially aimed at. With regard to shape, there is 
 little or no difficulty to contend with, the rule of " like 
 producing like" invariably holding good. With regard 
 to colour, however, owing I imagine to the promiscuous 
 breeding and crossing hitherto practised, it is nothing 
 like so certain. Could you only obtain birds of any 
 given colour, whose ancestors had never been crossed 
 with those of any other for eight or ten generations 
 previously, I have little doubt but that it would be as 
 constant and unchanging as any other quality you could 
 name. But owing to the want of the systematic breed- 
 ing we recommend, this rule can hardly be depended 
 upon at present, or, indeed, any other, for all are liable 
 to be marred by vagaries which the breeder could not 
 possibly anticipate. Hence also the discrepancies and 
 
The Canary. 
 
 conflicting advice given by various writers upon the 
 subject, such being true probably as regards his own 
 unlimited experience, but scarcely to be relied on as an 
 unalterable rule for all. Thus, one writer whom we 
 have consulted lays down the law clearly and tersely : 
 " If you: wish very high-coloured birds, breed jonque 
 and jonque," that is, bright yellow with bright yellow, 
 whilst another as confidently asserts that such a mode 
 of proceeding will never do, but that "a fine full- 
 coloured yellow bird is most likely to be obtained from 
 the union of a clear-bred jonque cock with a large per- 
 fect mealy hen." Who shall decide when doctors dis- 
 agree ? As in the matter of medicine, the homoeopaths 
 and the allopaths are diametrically opposed in the prin- 
 ciples on which their practice is based, the one asserting 
 that like cures like, and the other clinging as strictly 
 to the contraries, so do authors who treat upon the 
 breeding of the canary. One party asserts without 
 fear of contradiction, " that the union of opposites are 
 productive of the most harmonious results," the other 
 that their experience teaches the very contrary. For 
 my own part, I believe much depends upon the parti- 
 cular circumstances of each case. Wherever we can 
 obtain pure bred birds from a pure stock of several ge- 
 nerations I have no doubt about the soundness and 
 wisdom of the homoeopathic principle of " like producing 
 like. " But where birds have been cross bred with others 
 of different colour, or where it is desirable to infuse a 
 harder texture into the soft and flossy silkiness of 
 feather usually found in very high-coloured birds, a 
 cross with a close-feathered mealy hen may be more 
 
Preparations for Breeding, fyc. 103 
 
 desirable. As an instance of the rule of contraries, it is 
 universally admitted that two mop-headed, or turned- 
 down-crested birds, will produce bald-pated offspring. 
 Why, I believe, is not understood. Of the truth of 
 this I cannot personally speak of my own knowledge, 
 never having made the experiment. However, whilst 
 adhering to the maxim of like producing like, it is only 
 fair to state the caution I received from the German 
 importer when I bought my green hen to match with a 
 cock of similar colour. " You do tink," said my in- 
 formant in quaint and broken English, " you do tink 
 to have green birds by pairing dis green hen with a 
 cock like her." " Certainly," I replied. " Well, me 
 do tink no such ting; me tink you will have clear 
 yellow ones." ff Well," 1 rejoined, " we shall see ; at 
 all events I will try and make the experiment, for, 
 after all, there is nothing like personal experience in 
 such matters." Though I have not succeeded in rearing 
 any from the birds in question, yet we succeeded in 
 having several young birds hatched and reared until 
 they had fine feathers on their back, all of which were 
 exceedingly dark, and showed no approach to anything 
 like yellow. Mr. Adams in his 'Cage and Singing 
 Birds/ says good Lizards are obtained by matching a 
 strongly marked grey cock with a dark-splashed hen, and 
 if you put together a strong grey or green-coloured cock 
 with a clear mealy hen, you will most likely have what 
 are called cinnamon birds ; the lightest tinted of this 
 variety are termed quakers ; and if you match a quaker 
 hen with a clear greenish cock, you get what is called 
 the dove canary^ from the soft, subdued colour of its 
 
104 The Canary. 
 
 plumage. If you pair for several seasons the lightest 
 mealies procurable, you will have white and flaxen- 
 coloured birds, and so you may go on producing varie- 
 ties innumerable. For our own part, however, we 
 recommend the system of like producing like, keeping 
 these clear and distinct, rather than crossing and re- 
 crossing as above described ; but, above all, the breeding 
 of self-coloured birds rather than of irregularly or 
 fancifully marked birds we now too often see. 
 
 " Rejoice, my merry little mate, 
 
 The blithesome spring is coming, 
 When thou shalt roam, with heart elate, 
 
 To hear the wild hee humming ; 
 To hear the wild bee humming round 
 
 The primrose sweetly blowing, 
 And listen to each gentle sound 
 
 Of gladsome music flowing. 
 
 " The birds shall sing from many a bower, 
 
 Joy like thy own obeying ; 
 And round full many a blooming flower 
 
 The butterfly be playing 
 Be playing, love, on wings as light 
 
 As heart in thy young bosom, 
 And showing tints as fair and bright 
 
 As does the opening blossom. 
 
 " The snowdrops by our garden walk 
 
 Long since to life have started < 
 They wither now upon the stalk ; 
 
 Their beauty is departed 
 Their beauty is departed. But 
 
 Flowers in the fields are springing, 
 Which by and bye shall ope and shut, 
 
 As to the glad birds singing. 
 
Preparations for Breeding, fyc. 105 
 
 " Spring is to me no happy time, 
 
 Its smiles are touch'd with sadness ; 
 For vanish'd, with life's early prime, 
 
 Is much that gave it gladness. 
 Yet, merry playmate, for thy sake, 
 
 I will not sing of sorrow ; 
 But since thou canst its joys partake, 
 
 I would 'twere spring to-morrow." 
 
106 The Canary. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 NEST-BOXES AND NESTS. 
 
 |A.VING paired all our birds, and returned them 
 aviary, the next thing that became 
 necessary was to provide them with the means 
 of making their nest. When wild the canary, as we 
 have already stated, loves to build its nest in the 
 branches of the orange-tree on the banks of some silver 
 stream, where the perfume of the flowers seems most 
 grateful to its taste. To gratify this very natural pro- 
 pensity of their nature was wholly out of our power, we 
 having neither orange-trees nor greenhouse to offer 
 them. Use, however, we knew was second nature, and 
 therefore as the latter is proverbially accommodating to 
 the circumstances in which it finds itself, we did not 
 despair of inducing our feathered friends to put up 
 with a much more humble and unromantic situation. 
 Their locality was fixed, and from that there was no 
 escape. If it could not be said to be quite so poetical 
 as the banks of a stream, or the perfumed orangery of 
 a greenhouse, still it was light, cheerful, airy, and 
 above all of even temperature, and altogether free from 
 cold and chilling draughts, points specially to be 
 attended to in the breeding and keeping of the canary. 
 Nothing is more injurious to their health than great 
 
Nest-loxes and Nests. 107 
 
 and sudden changes in the temperature, and nothing 
 kills them so soon as the exposure to a cold draught. 
 Too much heat is to be avoided as much as too little, 
 the former making the hens sickly, produces weakening 
 perspirations very injurious to their own health, as well 
 as causes their young to be weak and difficult to rear. 
 As we had no trees, or anything that could be taken as 
 an apology for one, two things were manifestly re 
 quired, viz., materials wherewith to make their nest, 
 and something wherein the nest might be made in. 
 We looked about, and saw, both in the market and in 
 the shop-windows of the dealers, pretty little wicker- 
 work baskets, a trifle larger than the panniers usually 
 placed on the back of a toy-jackass, with building 
 materials corresponding to their size. We were too 
 practical to be taken in with such toys, and abjured 
 them from the first with as much contempt as would a 
 true disciple of old Isaac the tempting flies and taking 
 gear usually found in a fashionable fishing-tackle shop 
 in town. In lieu thereof we had a number of wooden 
 boxes made, of the following proportions, viz,, three 
 and three quarter inches long, by three and a quarter 
 wide, and two deep, in fact, common kitchen soap- 
 boxes, the back finishing in a point, and having a long 
 hole so as to take on and off a hook placed in the wall 
 for that purpose. These were both neat in their 
 appearance, and commodious for the birds, requiring 
 indeed a little more material to fill them, but prevent- 
 ing the risk of the young birds falling out of their nest, 
 and coming to an untimely end, at the same time that 
 they were easy to exchange and keep clean. 
 
108 The Canary. 
 
 Placing one in each corner of the aviary, and others 
 midway between, we left each bird to select his own 
 plot of building-ground, as whim or fancy might direct. 
 Very amusing was it to watch .each newly-married 
 couple setting, off on a house-hunting expedition. With 
 critical eye and searching glance they inspected all the 
 ins and outs of their future domicile, weighing the 
 advantages and drawbacks to each with discriminating 
 wisdom and caution, One pair evidently liked to see 
 all that was gping on in the bustling and busy scene of 
 the little world around them, and chose a handsome 
 villa residence close to the, wire fencing which formed 
 the boundary of their domain; another, more shy and 
 retiring, selected a quiet cozy-looking domicile in an 
 out-of-the-way corner at the t back, into which no in- 
 quisitive passer-by . might . look or . intrude ; a third 
 evidently looked out for a bright and cheerful aspect, 
 having an eye to the early rays of the morning sun ; 
 while a fourth, reflecting how all their domestic comfort 
 might be destroyed, could every idle, gossiping neigh- 
 bour overlook their house, selected the highest situation 
 they could find, from whence they could look down with 
 an air of conscious superiority on all below. In a word, 
 some liked light, and some shade, some the activity of 
 the world, some the retirement of the cloister, and thus 
 it came to pass, one way or other, each selected the 
 spot that pleased them best ; and though there was but 
 one vase of water for each four houses, the ladies con- 
 trived to live in harmony and peace, instead of, as is 
 too often the case under such circumstances with the 
 human race, wasting many hard words over a little 
 
Nest-boxes and Nests. 109 
 
 soft water, and striving hard like echo to have the 
 last word. 
 
 Well, but after all, you will say, these wooden boxes 
 are hut the bricks and mortar of their residence, the 
 bare walls, as it were, of their house, how did they fit 
 them up and furnish them ? In human families, most 
 of us know, when a little stranger is expected, great 
 preparations are made for his proper reception. There 
 is a nice wicker cradle, a soft and downy mattress for 
 his bed, fine warm woollen blankets to keep him warm, 
 to say nothing of the white pincushion with its pink or 
 blue ribbon, and customary salutation inscribed in 
 pinny type, saying, " Welcome little stranger !" What 
 have you then to correspond with all this ? Where did 
 you go a shopping ? Who was your upholsterer and 
 cabinet-maker, and how did you provide for their 
 wants ? Happily all these questions are soon answered ; 
 we had no suites of expensive mahogany, rosewood, or 
 walnut, to purchase; there was no perplexity in 
 choosing between oak and maple-painted or japan 
 ware ; we had no anxiety about either the colour of our 
 curtains, or the texture of our carpets ; lace and muslin, 
 damask or chintz, silk or moreen, had no charms for 
 our newly-married couples. No, they cared not a rush 
 for Axminster or Turkey, Brussels or velvet pile, 
 Scotch or Kidderminster, felt or drugget, cocoa-nut or 
 oilcloth for their flooring. Having no windows they 
 required neither Venetians for their blinds, or white or 
 buff hollands to keep out the sun. Gold cornices and 
 rods were alike dispensed with ; being always on the 
 wing they wanted neither staircase nor other carpet in 
 
110 The Canary. 
 
 their bedroom, or rocking-chair to lull them to sleep. 
 No, the furnishing of their house was a much more 
 simple and inexpensive a matter. A little moss from 
 some old forest tree, a little hair from the cow with the 
 crumpled horn, and a little raw cotton given me by a 
 kind friend, notwithstanding half the mills in Man- 
 chester were either on the point of stopping or of 
 putting their hands on short time, through lack of 
 sufficient material to carry on their business, owing to 
 the mortal strife then going on between the Northern 
 and Southern States of America, was all that we 
 required. Having first thoroughly cleaned the moss, 
 and scalded the hair with boiling water, for the purpose 
 of killing all vermin that might be therein, we dried it 
 again before the fire, and then with a further addition 
 of cotton, put the whole in little string nets made for 
 the purpose, which we hung outside the wires of the 
 aviary, that the birds might not pull it. all in pieces by 
 way of amusement, as otherwise they would be very 
 likely to do. The moss made a very good mattress, 
 the hair answered the purpose of a good feather bed, 
 whilst the cotton supplied the place of a pair of the 
 warmest witney blankets or eider-down quilt, shutting 
 out all cold, and making altogether a couch such as the 
 most luxurious lady of the land might envy and desire. 
 Unlike the English finches, to wit, the goldfinch, 
 chaffinch, and linnet, the canary finch is but a rough 
 and clumsy builder, caring comparatively little for the 
 external neatness of its nest, though the interior is laid 
 in and finished with considerable care and attention to 
 its appearance. Still, of its performance, no less than of 
 
Nest-boxes and Nests. Ill 
 
 that of these superior artists, may we say with Hurdis, 
 in that beautiful poem entitled " The Village Curate," 
 
 " But most of all, it wins my admiration, 
 To view the structure of this little work, 
 A bird's nest. Mark it well ! within, without j 
 No tool had he that wrought no knife to cut, 
 No nail to fix no bodkin to insert 
 No glue to join ; his little beak was all. 
 And yet how neatly finished ! What nice hand, 
 With every implement and means of art, 
 And twenty years' apprenticeship to boot, 
 Could make me such another ? Fondly, then, 
 We boast of excellence, whose noblest skill 
 Instinctive genius foils." 
 
The Canary. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 OUR FIRST BIRDS. 
 
 |N the 26th of March, the weather being fine, 
 and our birds strong, and we ourselves all 
 anxiety and impatience to begin, we first put 
 the nest-boxes and materials for building into the 
 aviary. Immediately all was wonder and excitement 
 amongst the birds. The hens bustled about from one 
 box to another, curiously inspecting every nook and 
 corner, each apparently afraid lest her neighbour 
 should be first in the field. Although in taking a 
 house many inquiries have to be made, which little girls 
 who live at home at ease, and which bachelors and 
 spinsters domiciling in lodgings ready for their use 
 have little conception of, it was evident, as there were 
 many applicants for the same tenement, they had no 
 time to lose. Our birds seemed to be of this opinion, and 
 as it usually happens in such cases, so it did with them. 
 The least and most energetic little hen in the whole 
 aviary at once decided upon the most eligible villa in 
 the square, and forthwith took possession by lining it 
 with moss and hair. Whilst others were looking about, 
 unable to make up their minds, or wasting their time 
 in picking at the hair and cotton, little Blanche had 
 half finished her nest. Not a moment did she lose, 
 though her lordly husband proved a very indifferent 
 
Our First Birds. 113 
 
 help, and did little more than look on. So vigorously, 
 however, did she set to work, that by the next day the 
 nest was nearly completed, and on the morning of the 
 27th, only three days after the nest-boxes had been put 
 into the aviary, to the great joy of herself and our own 
 children, she had deposited her first egg ! Here was 
 an event ; the discovery of a new world by the Spanish 
 seamen could scarcely have excited greater interest or 
 curiosity than did the first glimpse of the little speckled 
 globe now in our aviary. The thrilling rapture with 
 which the first Crusaders gazed upon the battlements 
 of the Holy City, or the wild delight with which the 
 first settlers in the New World looked upon the Pacific 
 Ocean, could scarcely exceed the delirious joy excited 
 by this happy event in our youngsters' breasts. All 
 were eager to have a peep at the long-expected treasure, 
 though they knew they must not touch or tease the 
 old bird with their inquisitiveness. To gratify this 
 very pardonable curiosity, and as I knew they would 
 not abuse it afterwards, I gave permission for them all 
 to have a look. So, piling a number of boxes on the 
 window-seat, they soon mounted up one after the othei 
 to satisfy their curiosity, and even Polly, the youngest, 
 by standing on tiptoes, managed to get a glimpse of 
 the precious gem, which having done they all set off 
 to school with hearts as light and smiles as bright as 
 the morning breeze. The next day poor little Blanche 
 laid another, and the next another, then missing a day, 
 the following morning, a fifth. So far all went merry 
 as a marriage-bell, and our fondest hopes seemed in a 
 fair way to be shortly realised. Others began to build 
 
 8 
 
114 The Canary. 
 
 also, and by the Saturday following, Beauty and 
 Buttercup had finished their nest, and on the Sunday 
 morning the former had deposited her first egg therein. 
 Little Blanche was indefatigable in her maternal duties, 
 but her husband, I am sorry to say, who all along had 
 shown himself to be only an idle, shacking sort of 
 fellow, now exhibited himself in his true colours. 
 Whenever she left the nest, instead of guarding it 
 with jealous care against all marauders, as a good 
 husband should, my gentleman began to pick out the 
 soft cotton with which it was lined, and thus set a very 
 bad example to the others, which, I am grieved to 
 say, they were not slow to follow. For a day or two 
 this sort of thing went on without any material harm 
 being done, for, being an active, industrious little 
 bird, little Blanche soon repaired the damage done in 
 her absence, whilst she administered to the culprits 
 caught in the act a sound drubbing, which they richly 
 deserved. Often did they fly away with a flea in their 
 ears for their wanton and malicious attacks upon other 
 people's property, but alas ! one morning we found the 
 nest all turned upside down in the box, and though the 
 eggs were not broken, and we tried to repair the 
 damage, poor little Blanche looked the picture of 
 misery, and never went near them again. Every now 
 and then she would go and take a momentary peep at 
 her now desolate house, but instinct, I suppose, told 
 her that it would be useless to return. Her fondest 
 hopes were evidently blighted, and the bright visions 
 of her callei brood were at an end ; and bitterly did 
 she seem to mourn over her loss, whilst her good-for- 
 
Our First Birds. 115 
 
 nothing husband looked on with the utmost indif- 
 ference. The eggs and nest were, after a day or two, 
 utterly left and deserted, and all was mute and blank 
 despair. As she sat upon her perch beside her rifled 
 home, she seemed to ask as many another bereaved 
 parent has done 
 
 " How can you bid this heart be blithe, 
 
 When blithe this heart can never be ? 
 I've lost the jewel from my crown 
 
 Look round our circle, and you'll see 
 That there is ane out o' the ring 
 
 Who never can forgotten be. 
 Ay, there's a blank at my right hand, 
 
 That ne'er can be made up to me. 
 
 " 'Tis said, as water wears the rock, 
 
 That time wears out the deepest line ; 
 It may be true wi' hearts enow, 
 
 But never can apply to mine. 
 For I have learned to know and feel 
 
 (Though losses should forgotten be) 
 That still the blank at my right hand 
 
 Can never be made up to me. 
 
 " I blame not Providence's sway, 
 
 For I have many joys beside ; 
 And fain would I in grateful way 
 
 Enjoy 'the same, whate'er betide. 
 A mortal thing should ne'er repine, 
 
 But stoop to God's supreme decree ! 
 Yet oh ! the blank at my right hand 
 
 Can never be made up to me ! " 
 
 This was a very untoward and unlooked-for disaster, 
 but as it was clear there was no use in crying over spilt 
 milk or dwelling upon it in melancholy inactivity, after 
 a few days poor little Blanche set to work again as 
 
116 The Canary. 
 
 industriously as ever, and soon regained her usual 
 good spirits. This time she selected a box in the very 
 opposite corner, and soon completed another nest as 
 quickly as before, whilst her mate, as if to make up 
 for his past misconduct, now began one on his own 
 account half way between the two. Each worked away 
 at its own box, paying an occasional visit to the 
 other, as though they were trying to see which could 
 make the best, but in no wise assisting in each other's 
 work. This certainly was very mysterious. What 
 could it mean ? Did they intend to have a town and 
 country residence, or was one to be a cottage for the 
 children, whilst papa and mamma were attending to 
 their business at home ? or did they intend to separate, 
 and have two distinct establishments, as some people 
 do who cannot agree to live together ! This they did 
 not choose to inform us for the present ; and so we 
 were left to our own conjecture and surmise. At times, 
 we thought Brilliant must be a hen, instead of a cock, 
 yet the brilliancy of his colour, his general appearance, 
 and his always being in the company of Blanche, forbad 
 the notion. Certainly it was curious that now they 
 should thus separate, and construct two habitations, 
 when only one could possibly be required. Hitherto, 
 every one who had seen him had considered him to be 
 a cock, and up to the time of making his first nest he 
 had been most assiduous in his attentions upon the 
 beautiful little Blanche. Day after day we watched 
 the denouement of this very mysterious business, and 
 wondered how it would ultimately end. Soon, it was 
 remarked, that master Spangle had suddenly become 
 
Our First Birds. 117 
 
 suspiciously attentive to the fair Brilliant, and every 
 day tended to confirm our worst surmises, when Judy 
 got up to see what they were really doing with their 
 nests, and descried three fine eggs in each! Our 
 pet Brilliant had turned out an undoubted hen, and 
 thus all our hopes of breeding London fancy birds with 
 black wings and tail and pure golden bodies were for 
 the time at an end ! Nor was this the least part, or 
 the whole of our misfortune; our whole arrangement 
 in the upper aviary was altogether upset, for we had 
 now two hens without a cock, and, in all probability, 
 should soon have three, for master Spangle, there was 
 too much reason to fear, would soon desert poor Lady 
 Grey, of whom he had seemed passionately fond all the 
 winter and spring. Of this danger she appeared to be 
 aware, and so, thinking the best way to reclaim her 
 recreant lord would be to build a nest herself, she 
 immediately set to work and soon followed their ex- 
 ample. Each lady then sat upon her own eggs with- 
 out further molestation, and thus for a time harmony 
 seemed to be restored, whilst at no distant date there 
 appeared every probability that Mr. Spangle would have 
 three wives on his hand, and a numerous family to 
 support. 
 
 In this way time rolled on, when suddenly to our 
 dismay the weather, from being warm and spring-like, 
 became intensely cold, snow falling on the 12th of 
 April, and ice forming in the night of considerable 
 thickness. What, we naturally thought, would become 
 of our young birds under such circumstances? The 
 room in which they were was certainly as warm, or 
 
118 The Canary. 
 
 even warmer than most ordinary rooms, but still it was 
 sufficiently cold, we knew, in the night time to give rise 
 to very serious apprehensions. We had already heard 
 some weeks past of young birds being hatched, and of 
 the almost hopeless endeavour to rear them, and now it 
 was colder than ever ! Well, we could not help it, the 
 eggs were laid, the birds were sitting, and the young 
 brood would soon be hatched in all human probability. 
 To provide flannel shirts for their little naked bodies 
 was impossible, and so they must take their chance. 
 As the expected day drew nigh when the first young- 
 sters should break their shells and be introduced to the 
 light of day, all, as might be anticipated, began to be 
 eager to catch a first glimpse of the long-expected 
 treasures ! We had calculated our first birds would 
 make their appearance on the fourteenth ; but just as 
 we were on the point of starting for church the day 
 before, which happened to be Palm Sunday, Judy 
 rushed into the parlour in the highest state of excite- 
 ment, saying, she was sure a young bird was hatched. 
 At first 1 doubted the fact, having calculated the period 
 of incubation, which lasts fourteen days, from the day 
 the last egg was laid. In this, however, I was wrong, 
 the proper time being fourteen days from the first, each 
 egg being then consecutively hatched in the order they 
 are laid, which thus often makes two, three, and four 
 days' difference in the age of the birds. She was sure 
 she had seen a small beak stretched out above Beauty's 
 nest to be fed, and was certain her eyes had not deceived 
 her. Great was the joy which this startling intelli- 
 gence created amongst the children. For a time they 
 
Our First Birds. 119 
 
 could think of nothing else, so that I had some doubts 
 as to the benefits they might get from the coming sermon. 
 However, my misgivings were happily ill-founded, for 
 on questioning them afterwards on the subject, though 
 Judy confessed she could not help thinking about it 
 whilst the bells were ringing, yet, as soon as the 
 service commenced, she dismissed all thoughts of such 
 things out of her head, and was able to join the service 
 and follow the sermon throughout, as well as though 
 nothing of the kind had happened. This was as it should 
 be with us all at all times ; and I need hardly say we 
 all returned home with joyous hearts and happy feel- 
 ings, without having allowed our earthly pleasures to 
 interfere with our religious duties, or permitted our re- 
 ligious exercises to mar or cast a gloom upon our 
 domestic pleasures, which surely God never intended 
 they should do. In the afternoon, a second was said 
 to have become visible, and now I hardly know which 
 were the most pleased, the children or the parent birds. 
 Beauty and Buttercup surveyed the little strangers 
 with the fondness of a parent's eye, and evidently viewed 
 them with the most exquisite delight. The news soon 
 spread throughout the whole aviary that some young 
 birds had been born into their little world, though 
 no penny-a-liner connected with the press was there to 
 publish it abroad. However, so it was ; the secret was 
 not to be kept long from the lady birds, who, we ob- 
 served, immediately nocked round the happy pair, and 
 had a peep at the little strangers, and, perhaps, congra- 
 tulated their parents on their happy lot. Having done 
 this, each returned to their respective homes, cheered, 
 
120 . The Canary. 
 
 no doubt, and encouraged to further perseverance by 
 the lovely sight, conscious that if they should only 
 prove equally as attentive to their maternal duties as 
 the happy pair before them, their labours would in due 
 time be similarly blessed, and themselves be equally 
 happy. Very cheering was it to watch these little 
 birds constructing with artistic skill the soft lining of 
 their nests ; very lovely was it to notice the self-denying 
 love and unwearied patience with which they brooded 
 over their little eggs, and tended their caller-young. 
 Beautifully and minutely has Erasmus Darwin sketched 
 the whole process when describing that of their kindred 
 finch, the linnet. 
 
 " The busy birds, with nice selection, cull 
 Soft thistle-down, grey moss, and scattered wool; 
 Far from each prying eye the nest prepare, 
 Formed of warm moss, and lined with sdftest hair. 
 Week after week, regardless of her food, 
 Th J incumbent linnet warms her future brood ; 
 Each spotted egg witL Vory bill she turns, 
 Day after day with fond impatience burns 
 Hears the young prisoner chirping in his cell, x 
 
 , And breaks in hemispheres the fragile shell !" 
 
Our Misfortunes. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 OUR MISFORTUNES. 
 
 |HOUGH one of our cocks had turned out a 
 hen, and for the time disconcerted our plans, 
 there was not a great deal the matter, seeing 
 that we had now two nests full of eggs where we only 
 expected to have had one. After all, we thought, we 
 should have the hest of the bargain, and already began 
 to calculate our chickens, as usual, before they were 
 hatched. In due time, however, this important pre- 
 liminary to our success was brought about. Little 
 Brilliant hatched two fine, strong, healthy-looking birds, 
 whilst little Blanche had three equally promising. For 
 a while they throve and increased ; but just as they 
 got well covered with pin-feathers all of a sudden they 
 seemed to stop in their growth, becoming pale in hue 
 instead of the red flesh colour which young birds in 
 vigorous health always are, languished a day or two, 
 and finally died. At first, we could not at all account 
 for this singular retrograde movement, seeing that they 
 were well supplied with excellent food, such as boiled 
 egg chopped up very fine, and bread soaked in milk, 
 besides the regular food for the old ones. On examina- 
 tion, however, which was further borne out by obser- 
 vation, we concluded that they really died of starvation, 
 for they had nothing in their crops, arid there could be 
 
The Canary. 
 
 no doubt but that the old birds from some cause or other 
 had sadly neglected their tender offspring. It seems 
 strange that any parent should willingly do this, and 
 that amidst so much profusion and plenty, they should 
 refuse to give to their young that food which instinct 
 must tell them is absolutely necessary to sustain life. 
 I do not suppose that such a thing often happens with 
 birds in a wild state ; but, I am sorry to say, it is a 
 failing very prevalent amongst canaries in the tame, 
 and that it is especially the case with the higher bred 
 birds, who seem to have an especial aversion to any- 
 thing like work. We thought we could account for 
 our present disaster sufficiently well from the fact that 
 both were hens without mates, and that as it was the 
 duty of the ladies to sit on the eggs and hatch the 
 young, so it became in turn the duty of the males to 
 feed the birds so hatched, and that in point of fact this 
 was to a great extent invariably left to their charge. 
 Thus, the hens being left to themselves, and having no 
 one to assist them in the very arduous duty of fill- 
 ing so many little beaks perpetually opening and 
 clamouring for food every time they returned to the 
 nest, became tired of their ceaseless task, or followed 
 the instinct of their nature and left off their maternal 
 duties at the usual time, though they had no mates to 
 take them up, and so the young birds suddenly stopped 
 in their growth, languished a day or two, and finally 
 died from sheer neglect and starvation. That such is 
 the probable solution of the desertion of the young in 
 the present case is, I think, very likely, though at the 
 same time it is not altogether the reason I am equally 
 
Our Misfortunes. 
 
 satisfied, inasmuch as the same thing occurred to us 
 over and over again where the hens had no such excuse, 
 but where they and their lords proved equally remiss. 
 As soon as we discovered that the old birds did not 
 sufficiently feed them, we tried to supply their place 
 by feeding them ourselves. In this work and labour 
 of love, Judy bestowed great care and patience, getting 
 up by four o'clock in the morning to feed them, but it 
 was all to little purpose. If we had begun with them 
 before they could see, perhaps we might have succeeded 
 better, but now they could open their eyes it was very 
 difficult to make them open their beaks and receive the 
 food which we offered. They knew the difference be- 
 tween the hand that gave and the beak which should have 
 brought them their necessary food, and, therefore, most 
 pertinaceously refused to take it. We did all we could 
 to surmount the difficulty, and were most anxious to 
 supply the place of the parents, for the birds which we 
 now had we could already see would be beautifully 
 marked, and most rare in colour. Brilliant's were 
 splendid golden-crested lizards, whilst one of little 
 Blanche's was the most lovely and delicate fawn and 
 white I ever beheld. Its head and wings were just the 
 shade of that charming drab silk of which Quaker 
 ladies twenty years ago seemed to enjoy an exclusive 
 monopoly, but which their more fashionable successors 
 appear to have almost entirely forsaken. For a time 
 Jiidy's efforts seemed to prosper, and the bird to our 
 great delight became almost fully fledged ; but one 
 bitter cold night she took it up to her bed-room in 
 ordei io feed it as soon as it was light, when somehow 
 
The Canary. 
 
 or other it got out of the flannel in which it was 
 wrapped, and was found dead when she awoke. The 
 others did not live so long, and thus all our hopes were 
 dashed to the ground, and so far as they were con- 
 cerned, there was little better prospect for the future. 
 
 The weather, as we said, Had now turned bitterly 
 cold again, and for some time our Belgian-bred birds 
 showed no symptom of building. They were evidently 
 in no hurry to begin, but at length, about the middle of 
 April, the little green hen took the lead, and set the 
 others a good example by making a beautiful little 
 nest, and depositing therein four eggs. Like Beauty 
 and Buttercup above, she selected a box close to the 
 wires in one corner, whilst Daisy soon followed her 
 example by choosing the one adjacent at the back. 
 The latter laid five eggs, much finer and larger than 
 any we had yet had, whilst both were most attentive 
 to their maternal duties, scarcely leaving their nest 
 for food. This augured well for our success, and 
 anxiously did we count the days when the period of 
 incubation should be over, and more young birds 
 should be hatched. The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth 
 days passed away, the thirteenth dawned upon our 
 sight, when, horror of horrors, from some cause or 
 other, a fierce quarrel took place between these hitherto 
 peaceable birds, arid the whole of the poor little green 
 hen's eggs were scattered on the ground, the very day 
 before they should and would have been hatched, for 
 they were all good. A second time did our little 
 green hen essay to redeem the misfortune of the past, 
 but with no better success than before. Again she 
 
Our Misfortunes. 125 
 
 laid four eggs, but only succeeded in hatching two, 
 which, like those of Brilliant and Blanche above, 
 seemed to thrive and do very well until they had got 
 well covered over with pin-feathers, so that we could 
 see what colour they would be, when they, from some 
 cause, suddenly stopped in their growth, languished 
 and died. Though apparently excessively fond of 
 them, neither she nor Dandy would feed them suffi- 
 ciently, and so they died. A third time she made a 
 nest, laid and hatched one young one, which perished 
 in the same way, and then I thought she had done 
 enough for one season, and so took her away from her 
 lord. We had seen enough to show the unsoundness 
 of the theory propounded by our German friend as to 
 the colour of the offspring from two vivid green birds, 
 for although one had a yellow mark on his back, all 
 the others were undoubtedly green, thus showing that, 
 after all, " like will produce like," not only in shape 
 but colour. 
 
 By the beginning of June, Daisy and Marquis had 
 completed their second nest, and the former safely 
 deposited four more exceedingly fine eggs therein, 
 which, after due time, were all hatched, producing 
 four young birds. This was famous luck, and now we 
 thought we should surely succeed, as Daisy, we did 
 not doubt, would prove an exemplary mother. But 
 alas ! no, it was just as though an epidemic, or species 
 of mania, had seized the birds ; like the rest, after a 
 few days, she seemed tired of feeding them, and her 
 husband did not seem much inclined to supply her 
 place. Thus they shared the same fate as the others, 
 
126 The Canary. 
 
 and out of this goodly nest-full, not one remained 
 alive to increase our stock by the end of the following 
 week. 
 
 In the upper aviary, our cinnamons gave equally as 
 goodly promise, as did Daisy. Seraph and Sylph like- 
 wise completed their nest, and the latter laid four fine 
 eggs, on which she duly sat, and then hatched, when 
 Beauty made a marauding excursion to her nest, 
 trying to steal the soft cotton therefrom, although 
 there was plenty of fresh below for her especial use. 
 A fierce battle accordingly ensued between these fair 
 ladies, the consequence of which was most disastrous 
 to the youthful birds, two of which were just hatched, 
 both being kicked out of the nest in the fray, and 
 drowned in the water-vase beneath. The nest was 
 upset, and the remaining eggs were either broken or 
 deserted, and thus our hopes in this direction were 
 again frustrated, and our rarest coloured birds were 
 desolate and forlorn. A second time they essayed, but 
 with little better success. Two birds alone were 
 hatched out of four eggs, but these were not sufficiently 
 fed, and so they shared the same fate, notwithstanding 
 all our efforts to the contrary. It was as though a 
 spell hung over all our proceedings, and we were never 
 to succeed in realising our fondly cherished dreams. 
 
 Our lizards did the worst of any, for Spangle, as we 
 have already stated, deserted his lawful wife at the 
 beginning, and took little notice of anything she did in 
 the way of building. However she made an attempt 
 notwithstanding, and laid two eggs, one of which got 
 broken somehow, when she deserted the other and nest 
 
Our Misfortunes. 127 
 
 together. We put it under another hen who was 
 sitting at the same time, but it came to nothing. For a 
 long while poor Lady Grey seemed quite sad and forlorn, 
 as well she might he to be so deserted by her husband, 
 till at length we took them both out of the aviary 
 together, and placed them in a breeding-cage by them- 
 selves. There she made another nest, but now became 
 ill and out of health, so that she never laid again, and 
 we took them with us into the country for change 
 of air. 
 
 July came, and now we left town for our usual visit 
 to the shires, and so ended all our hopes for the present 
 year. Although our eight hens had laid upwards of 
 eighty eggs, we only succeeded in rearing three birds, 
 which, however, was enough to make us hope for 
 better luck next time, and to keep us from despairing. 
 Our misfortunes were chiefly owing to a series of un- 
 toward accidents, and we felt sure that as all our birds 
 were young ones, and therefore having much to learri, 
 they would become steadier and do better a second 
 season. We therefore separated the cocks from the 
 hens, placing each by themselves for the coming winter 
 until spring should bring pairing-time again, when we 
 hope for better luck and more prosperous times. Yes, 
 
 " Sweet smile of hope, delicious tear, 
 
 The sun, the shower indeed shall come ; 
 The promised verdant shoots appear, 
 And nature bid her blossoms bloom." 
 
 We do not despair, but look forward with joy to the 
 prospect of returning spring, when we may again essay 
 
128 The Canary. 
 
 to realise our dreams of canary-breeding. Thus it is 
 with us as it was with the farmer's boy 
 
 " Sunshine, health, and joy, 
 Play round and cheer the elevated boy. 
 ' Another spring !' his heart exulting cries ; 
 ' Another year !' with promised blessings rise; 
 Eternal Power, from whom those blessings flow, 
 Teach me still more to wonder, more to know ; 
 Seed-time and harvest let me see again 
 Wander the leaf-strewn wood, the frozen plain, 
 Let the first flower, corn-waving field, plain, tree, 
 Here round my home, still lift my soul to Thee ; 
 And let me ever, 'midst Thy bounties, raise 
 An humble note of thankfulness and praise." 
 
Our Infirmary. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 OUR INFIRMARY. 
 
 |HE first patient we had under our care was the 
 beautiful cinnamon bird, who, as we have 
 already stated, was in a most deplorable state 
 from dirt and neglect. The first thing we prescribed 
 for her was the free use of the bath, of which she 
 speedily and daily continued to avail herself. This 
 soon effected a great change for the better in the general 
 appearance of her plumage, but now a more serious 
 matter demanded our attention. When she first came 
 into our possession her feet were mere balls of dirt, 
 which, though soon removed by the free use of the 
 bath, so inflamed them that she could hardly put one 
 foot to the ground. Indeed at night we discovered her 
 frequently on the floor, panting and heaving with pain, 
 sitting crumpled up in a corner instead of resting on a 
 perch like her companions. We bathed her foot in 
 warm water several times a day, and then dressed it 
 with glycerine, at the same time mixing a few drops of 
 aconite in her water to reduce the fever, which was 
 considerable. Although the glycerine evidently did 
 her foot good, yet we could not continue it, as it made 
 such a mess with her feathers, to which it stuck most 
 pertinaciously. We then tried spermaceti ointment, 
 but this she invariably pecked off almost as soon as 
 
130 The Canary. 
 
 applied. We then dressed it with arnica diluted in 
 water, in the proportion of four or five drops of the 
 former to half a teacupful of the latter, which soon 
 had the desired effect. For a time the centre toe was 
 quite stiff and useless, being swollen to twice the thick- 
 ness of the others, but by degrees we reduced this by 
 the arnica and the bathing, until at length a perfect 
 cure was effected, and now she is one of the healthiest 
 and cleanest, as well as most highly-prized birds in 
 our aviary. Such a bad case as this can only happen 
 through gross neglect and filthy habits ; birds may 
 sometimes have sore feet, however cleanly their apart- 
 ments may be kept, and however well they may be 
 supplied with water to bathe in, from the hardness of 
 the old scales, but these may easily be softened and 
 the soreness abated, by simply bathing them for five or 
 ten minutes in warm water a few times in the day. 
 In nine cases out of ten, this is all that will be found 
 necessary, but if not, the treatment pursued above will 
 soon effect a cure. 
 
 The next ailment that came under our notice was an 
 attack of diarrhoea, which is a somewhat dangerous 
 complaint, especially amongst high-bred birds. Hap- 
 pily for us, we had only one case, but it was the 
 highest personage of our aviary, in fact no other than 
 Sultan, the king of the Belgians. Like all the rest of 
 his tribe, he was always, though very robust in his 
 appearance, a very tender bird. The piercing cold of 
 winter soon told tales about his constitution, and a 
 severe attack of diarrhoea was the result. Fortunately 
 we took it in time, and removed him to the hospital- 
 
Our Infirmary. 131 
 
 cage by himself, where we prescribed for him alternate 
 doses of rheum and mercurius, mixing four or five 
 drops of each in two separate vases of water. At the 
 same time we kept him very warm, supplying him 
 with boiled bread and milk, and other nourishing food, 
 which soon brought him round, and effected a cure. 
 We considered ourselves very fortunate, for great 
 numbers of birds are carried off annually by this 
 disease, which sometimes rages like an epidemic 
 amongst the feathered tribe, as it does in the human 
 race. The same treatment which is found most suc- 
 cessful amongst the latter, will prove equally effectual 
 with birds. A little tincture of camphor dropped into 
 their water or on a lump of sugar, will also be of 
 service in the early stages, but if this fail, the prescrip- 
 tion above, I believe, will be found better than any of 
 the usual remedies ordinarily found in books, many of 
 which are as absurd as they are cruel. 
 
 The next case which called for immediate and decided 
 treatment was that of the Charming Princess, who, 
 after she had made her nest, we discovered to be egg- 
 bound. This was a dangerous case brought on by the 
 sudden change in the weather, which just then became 
 as nipping as the coldest day in winter. She was a 
 long while making her nest, occupying more than a 
 week over what some of her companions would have 
 finished in a couple of days. However it was com- 
 pleted at last, when we observed she began to look 
 poorly, crouching down to the ground, or sitting all of 
 a heap on the perches. No egg was laid, and she 
 appeared day after day to get visibly worse, until we 
 
132 The Canary. 
 
 came to the conclusion that she could not lay, or in 
 other words, was egg-bound. This, as we have said, 
 was a dangerous state of things, and necessitated an 
 immediate remedy, for if not speedily relieved, inflam- 
 mation would set in, and death must inevitably ensue. 
 Mere alterations in diet, as often recommended in such 
 cases, we knew would not only be useless, but highly 
 dangerous, seeing that the malady might run its course 
 ere these could possibly produce any effect. Accord- 
 ingly we adopted a very simple and efficacious plan 
 which rarely or ever fails to produce the desired result, 
 viz., a little castor-oil applied in the following manner. 
 Taking a penny camel-hair paint brush, and working 
 it into a point, we dipped it into some castor-oil, and 
 gently inserted it gradually up the vent of the bird, 
 applying a little outside as well, over the part affected 
 to allay any inflammation which might exist, and at 
 the same time putting a drop or so in its beak. The 
 next morning we found an egg safely deposited in the 
 nest, which of course relieved us of all further anxiety 
 about the case. We have since tried the same plan 
 on several others, and invariably with the same result. 
 Indeed Mr. M tells us, so sure a remedy is it, that 
 no one need lose a bird from this cause ; we can, there- 
 fore, confidently recommend it to others, whose birds 
 may be affected with what is generally considered a 
 very serious, and often fatal disease 
 
 The next disorder that came under our notice was a 
 very insidious one, of which we knew not for some time 
 either the existence or the cause. For a long time we 
 observed two of our Belgian birds, who, compared with 
 
Our Infirmary. 133 
 
 other breeds, are of most indolent habits, to be getting 
 daily rougher in their feathers, and to begin to shed 
 those of the wing until the pinions became quite bare 
 and red. What was the matter we could not tell, and, 
 therefore, what to do we were entirely at a loss, until 
 we accidentally met with a small German pamphlet on 
 piping bullfinches, which at once explained the mystery. 
 By this, we discovered our birds were infested with a 
 number of small red lice, nearly invisible to the naked 
 eye, but which often become so numerous as to suck 
 their blood to such an extent that they not only speedily 
 become emaciated, but even died. Various remedies 
 I have since found are recommended in various books, 
 such as a pinch of Scotch snuff sprinkled under the 
 wing and which at best can but afford partial relief. 
 The one I adopted I feel convinced to be the best, 
 though I should only recommend it to be used by a 
 grown up person, as the solution is a deadly poison, 
 which may prove riot only fatal to the bird but to others 
 if carelessly left about. Dissolving a pennyworth of 
 white precipitate powder into half a teacupful of 
 warm water, I made a solution with which by means 
 of a small brush I dressed each bird thoroughly all 
 over, taking especial care that the mixture did not get 
 either into his mouth or eyes. Then washing the whole 
 off with soap and warm water, I wrapped the bird in a 
 piece of flannel, and laid it before the fire until it was 
 partially dry, when I placed it in a cage covered over 
 with the same material, keeping it still before the fire 
 until it was thoroughly comfortable as before. They 
 looked wretched objects for a time, indeed so much so 
 
134 The Canary. 
 
 that Judy quite though't the first we did would never 
 recover, and pleaded hard for the rest going undone. 
 I myself had some misgivings as to the result, but the 
 warm flannel and comfortable fire soon dried their satu- 
 rated feathers, so that before night we might say of 
 each "Richard was himself again/' The next day the 
 birds became quite cheerful and lively, and our only 
 regret was that we had not discovered the disorder, and 
 applied the remedy before. We have since repeated 
 the application to every bird in our aviary after the 
 breeding season was over, when we found some of the 
 nest boxes to be swarming with these living pests, and 
 with very manifest advantage and success. Instead of 
 using a brush, however, we found it easier and quicker 
 and more effectual, to dip the bird bodily into the solu- 
 tion at once, taking care as before that none might get 
 into its beak or eyes, and then into a basin of warm 
 water as before. All birds, it is said, are infested more 
 or less with these nasty vermin, but generally manage 
 to keep them down by frequent bathing and dusting 
 themselves in sand. This I can imagine to be true, 
 for all the other birds at this time were clean and 
 healthy, and in good feather, having bathed daily 
 throughout the winter. These, however, had been in- 
 dolent and inactive, seldom or ever either bathing or 
 pluming themselves, even in the finest weather, thus 
 proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that in birds, 
 as well as in human beings, idleness and dirty habits 
 will inevitably bring on misery, and disease, and death. 
 To be healthy, we must be both cleanly in our persons 
 and active in our bodies; these combined will give 
 
Our Infirmary. 135 
 
 energy to the limbs and tone to the mind, which, toge- 
 ther with plain and nutritious food we take to be the 
 great secret of health. 
 
 The only other case which came under our treatment 
 was a case of asthma, which, as already stated, we failed 
 to cure. Bechstein says that it is a disease easily cured ; 
 for my own part I doubt the fact. The remedies we 
 used were those generally prescribed for the human 
 patient, and for a time they seemed to afford a tempo- 
 rary relief. The disease, however, appeared to us to 
 be untouched, and to return with every vicissitude of 
 the weather. Our bird, so long as she remained under 
 our immediate care did well enough, and might pro- 
 bably have lived a long while ; but a few weeks in other 
 hands, without the special attention she had with us, 
 sufficed to seal her fate. The remedies we tried were 
 the homoeopathic preparation of ipecacuanha, phos- 
 phorus, bryonia, and sulphur, in tinctures of the first 
 dilution ; but though some appeared to give relief for 
 a time, they did not effect a cure. I have seen many 
 birds similarly affected, and variously treated but with 
 the same result. Still Bechstein says " a favorite 
 linnet and goldfinch when attacked with very bad 
 asthma, were relieved and preserved for several years 
 by the following method. The first thing was entirely 
 to leave off hemp-seed, reducing them to rape-seed only ; 
 but giving them at the same time abundance of bread 
 soaked in pure water and then pressed ; lettuce, endive 
 or watercresses, according to the seasons, twice a week, 
 / giving them boiled bread and milk about the size of a 
 nutmeg. This is made by throwing a piece of the crum 
 
136 The Canary. 
 
 of white bread, about the size of a nut, into a teacupful of 
 milk, boiling it and stirring it all the time with a wooden 
 spoon till it is of the consistency of pap. It must be 
 quite cold before it is given to the birds, and must 
 always be made fresh, for if sour it will prove injurious. 
 This paste, which they are very fond of, purges them 
 sufficiently, and sensibly relieves them./Jn very violent 
 attacks nothing but this paste ought to be given for two 
 or three days following, and this will soon give the de- 
 sired relief. When the disease is only slight or only 
 begun, it is sufficient to give the bread and milk once 
 in three or four days. When employed under similar 
 circumstances this treatment has cured several very 
 valuable birds." We give the remedy as we find it, as 
 it is one easily tried, but we ourselves have little faith 
 in its efficacy, if the disease be anything but a tempo- 
 rary effect of some external cause, such as the giving 
 of too much hemp-seed or the exposure to too much 
 heat, which, of course, will vanish with the removal of 
 the cause. Beyond this, we doubt whether there be 
 any cure for a disease which has its seat in the delicate 
 organs of the throat and chest, and which though re- 
 lieved almost invariably lasts as long as the patient is 
 alive, whether it be man, bird, or beast. 
 
 This completed the list of cases in our infirmary, 
 and these, under ordinary circumstances, will be found 
 to be the chief ailments of the canary. The medicines 
 we used were the homoeopathic tinctures, which are far 
 more convenient and efficacious than any other form of 
 medicine for the feathered tribe. As we have proved 
 their efficacy in the case of man and beast for many 
 
Our Infirmary. 137 
 
 years, we can confidently recommend their use to others. 
 Canaries, though to a certain extent tender birds, 
 require little in the way of medicine. Only give them 
 plenty of good sound canary and rape seed, with now 
 and then a little hemp as a treat, and not as their 
 general food ; a little green food, such as lettuce, mus- 
 tard and cress, or apple or boiled carrot according to 
 the season, with plenty of clean water and red sand to 
 bathe and dust themselves in, and you will have little 
 trouble about doctoring. Provided you keep them in 
 an equal temperature, away from all cold draughts of 
 air, than which nothing kills them sooner, in a light 
 cheerful cage in which there is plenty of room, and 
 where there is the cheering warmth of the morning 
 sun, no birds will be found hardier or require less care 
 or attention. We would advise no one, however, to 
 keep canaries, or, indeed, any other bird or animal 
 that is deprived of the means of taking care of itself, 
 who is not really naturally fond of such things, for if it 
 be only taken up from fashion, or through a momen- 
 tary whim, depend upon it after the novelty is over, 
 the attention they require will soon become a trouble, 
 and the trouble will cause neglect, and neglect will 
 cause much misery and suffering, if not actual death to 
 the once charming pet. No, to take a real pleasure in 
 such things you must be " born, as it were, to love pigs 
 and poultry ;" it is a taste which cannot be acquired, 
 but being innate, will cause the necessary trouble it 
 entails to be a pleasure, and the care "a work and 
 labour of love." 
 
138 The Canary. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 ON CAGES. 
 
 [AGES suitable and proper for a canary are not 
 altogether so much mere matters of taste as 
 some people are apt to imagine. They may 
 be too small or too large, too ornamental or too elabo- 
 rate in their workmanship, and in either or all of these 
 cases they do not answer the purpose required. If a 
 cage be too small it is cruel to the bird you desire to 
 pet, while if it be too large, a single bird will not only 
 appear lost in it, but in all probability it will have the 
 effect of making him less disposed to treat you with his 
 song. On the other hand, if a cage be too elaborate 
 and ornamental in its design and workmanship, the 
 effect will be to fasten the attention rather on the 
 casket than on the jewel it is meant to enshrine. Since 
 the first Great Exhibition in Hyde Park we have had 
 bird-cages of every form and description. Swiss 
 cottages, Chinese pagodas, Gothic churches, and Indian 
 temples, with their painted domes and minarets, all 
 doing great credit to the taste and enterprise of our 
 workers in tin, but utterly unadapted to the purpose 
 required. To do this satisfactorily we maintain that 
 the cage should always be subordinate to the bird, and 
 its main object be to set off to the greatest advantage 
 the plumage of the latter, and just in proportion as it 
 
On Cages. 139 
 
 does this will it come up to our beau ideal of what a 
 cage should be. Whenever we see a beautiful canary 
 imprisoned in one of these gorgeously got up gimcracks 
 of zinc, we always feel very much what an artist in 
 some picture exhibition, standing near his own produc- 
 tion to hear the criticisms of the public, may be sup- 
 posed to feel, as he hears some unsophisticated party 
 exclaim, " Oh, my ! what a beautiful frame !" No, 
 this is surely putting the cart before the horse, and 
 therefore at once disposes of all these pretty toys, as 
 fit and proper habitations for our pet. No one who 
 has had a bird fit to be called a canary will ever 
 hide him in one of these, whilst those who possess 
 the lowest kind of the species only will hardly think 
 them to be worthy of so expensive a domicile. 
 
 For single birds the two cages we should recom- 
 mend are the japanned bell-shaped cage, and the plain 
 square white tinned sort. The former is light, airy 
 and elegant, and answers well for a single bird, who 
 always looks well in it. It has the recommendation of 
 being easily cleaned, and of affording the least possible 
 screen for those pests and scourges of the canary, red- 
 lice. The only drawback is, that its shape precludes 
 it from being hung up against a wall, but for a stand, 
 or to be suspended from a ceiling nothing can be better 
 for the purpose. In this, as in all other wares, there 
 are inferior kinds, of which I would fain put my readers 
 on their guard, for the cheaper imitations of the real 
 article being badly japanned and painted with the 
 worst of paint, and therefore easily picked off, as we 
 have experienced to our sorrow, are often the unsus- 
 
140 
 
 The Canary. 
 
On Cages. 141 
 
 pected cause of ill-health, and death of many a valued and 
 valuable bird. Of course the only way to guard against 
 this disaster is to go to the best makers, or the leading 
 bird-dealers, who are sure to patronise the best articles. 
 
 But the cage to set off a canary to the greatest 
 advantage, and which therefore we recommend before 
 all others, is the plain square-topped cage, made of 
 white tin wire without any wood-work at all, except 
 the bottom, which should be of polished ebony, or at 
 least, if of other wood, stained black. This suits alike 
 all birds of whatever colour they may be, but we need 
 hardly say sets off the pale yellow or the deep orange 
 to the very greatest advantage. It is far beyond the 
 common mahogany, as any one may judge for himself 
 if he will only contrast any substance of red and yellow 
 together, beside yellow and black. All fanciers when 
 they wish to exhibit their birds to a purchaser or 
 otherwise, invariably use a black cage and not a maho- 
 gany one, which speaks for itself. And yet how few 
 such cages do you see exhibited for sale; if you 
 wish for one, it is ten to one that you will have 
 specially to order it, and yet its greater superiority for 
 exhibiting a canary off to the best advantage over all 
 the japanned pagodas and Swiss cottages that ever were 
 made is beyond dispute, and requires only to be seen to 
 be at once admitted. 
 
 For the purpose of breeding of course a cage of a 
 totally different construction is required, and the ordi- 
 nary shape will answer every end. The double one, 
 however, will probably be most convenient, its size 
 being something like the following dimensions, viz., 
 
142 The Canary. 
 
 three feet six inches long, one foot wide, and two feet 
 high. This will be quite large enough, divided by a 
 wooden partition in the centre, for two pair of birds, 
 and it will be far better in the end to have a number of 
 these according to the extent of your breeding esta- 
 blishment, than to put two or more pairs together in a 
 larger cage, as they are almost sure to fight, when the 
 hazard of breaking their eggs, or killing the young, we 
 need scarcely say, is very great. Under any circum- 
 stances we hold prevention to be far better than cure, 
 and even if we had a room at our disposal for the 
 purpose, we should prefer a number of separate cages 
 or compartments for each pair of birds, rather than 
 turn them into it promiscuously. We speak from our 
 own experience in this matter, and confidently recom- 
 mend a separate cage such as we have described above, 
 to all who wish to unite the greatest amount of success 
 with the minimum of disaster. 
 
 When the young birds are to be weaned, or when a 
 number of old birds, after the breeding season is over, 
 have to be kept together, a third cage of a still different 
 construction is required. This is an oblong wire cage of 
 goodly size, according to the number of birds to be put 
 into it, and sufficiently large for the young birds to fly 
 about in, and exercise the muscles of their wings and 
 body. This is a matter of the very greatest importance, 
 for without exercise, and strong exercise too, young 
 birds can never be healthy or strong. Our own cage 
 is of the following dimensions, and one of the best for 
 the purpose we have seen, viz., four feet long, eighteen 
 inches wide, and twenty-two inches high. Every one 
 
On Cages. 143 
 
 may not have room enough for so large a cage, but the 
 nearer their cage approaches these dimensions, most 
 assuredly the better it will be for their young birds. 
 These cannot have too much room for exercise, and on 
 the quantity they are able to get when first taken 
 away from their parents, will their health and vigour 
 greatly depend. 
 
 Possessing cages of the several kinds we have 
 described, you will have every requisite necessary for 
 the exhibition, breeding, and weaning of your canaries. 
 In any case, whether you have one or all, be sure that 
 the wire of which they are made be not brass, for this 
 produces verdigris which I need scarcely say, if eaten, 
 will be fatal to your pets. Let the drinking font be 
 the pear-shaped glass font, which is ever self-supplying 
 and whose neck being inside the cage will preserve your 
 birds from the risk of being left without water. For the 
 ordinary seed I recommend the open drawer, with a 
 smaller one for a little hemp or other dainty. These 
 with a tin pan for sopped bread, or egg in breeding- 
 time will complete the fittings-up of your cages, and 
 leave nothing to be desired. 
 
 With this advice, and hoping my readers may profit 
 by the experience set forth in these pages, I will now 
 bid them Farewell. 
 
 
144 The Canary. 
 
 FAREWELL. 
 
 " Thou 'rt bearing hence thy roses, 
 Glad summer, fare thee well ! 
 Thou 'rt singing thy last melodies 
 In every wood and dell. 
 
 " But ere the golden sunset 
 
 Of thy latest lingering day, 
 Oh ! tell me, o'er this chequered earth, 
 How hast thou passed away ? 
 
 " Brightly, sweet summer, brightly 
 
 Thine hours have floated by, 
 To the joyous birds of the woodland boughs, 
 The rangers of the sky. 
 
 *' And brightly in the forests 
 
 To the wild deer wandering free ; 
 And brightly 'mid the garden flowers 
 To the happy murmuring bee. 
 
 " But how to human bosoms, 
 
 With all their hopes and fears, 
 And thoughts that make their eagle-wings 
 To pierce the unborn years ? 
 
Farewell. 145 
 
 Sweet summer ! to the captive 
 
 Thou hast flown in burning dreams 
 Of the woods, with all their whispering leaves, 
 
 And the hlue rejoicing streams; 
 
 ' * To the wasted and the weary, 
 
 On the bed of sickness bound, 
 In swift delirious fantasies, 
 
 That changed with every wound ; 
 
 " To the sailor on the billows, 
 In longings wild and vain 
 For the gushing founts and breezy hills, 
 And the homes of earth again ! 
 
 " And unto me, glad summer, 
 
 How hast thou flown to me ! 
 My chainless fcx)tsteps naught hath kept 
 From thy haunts of song and glee ! 
 
 " Thou hast flown in wayward visions, 
 
 In memories of the dead 
 In shadows from a troubled heart 
 O'er thy sunny pathway shed. 
 
 " In brief and sudden strivings 
 
 To fling a weight aside 
 'Midst these thy melodies have ceased, 
 And all thy roses died. 
 
 " But oh, thou gentle summer ! 
 
 If I greet thy flowers once more, 
 Bring me again the buoyancy 
 Wherewith my soul should soar. 
 
 10 
 
146 The Canary. 
 
 u Give me to hail thy sunshine, 
 With song and spirit free ; 
 Or in a purer air than this 
 May that next meeting he." 
 
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