234 



for their accuracy upon the individual records of one 

 village or even of one count}^ and so we must make 

 a mental picture of the enormous number of Canaries 

 that are bred all over the country and imported into it 

 every year. We are told that Norwich alone has no 

 fewer than four thousand breeders, and we know that 

 in addition to other parts of our island where whole 

 districts are apparently given up to the hobby, there is 

 scarcely anywhere the smallest hamlet in which the 

 breeding cage is not kept in use by one or more of the 

 inhabitants. We can thus form some idea of the 

 incredible numbers that are bred, and when we add to 

 these the thousands of crates of more or less 

 indifferent German cocks (and hens) that are 

 collectively sold by our dealers, the sum total must be 

 staggering. Now it follows that a uniforml}^ heavy 

 death-rate such as that obtaining among captured 

 birds, would by reason of its being so generally 

 diffused among our bird-keepers, be a matter of public 

 and general knowledge, and in the face of all the 

 trouble and expense involved in the pursuit of the 

 Canary hobby, would speedily put an end to it except 

 among the well-to-do and leisured classes, whereas, as 

 is well known, it flourishes chief!}" among the masses. 

 My own experience, my enquiries within the range ot 

 my fairly large circle of acquaintances, and the 

 information I have gleaned in the course of my patho- 

 logical investigations, lead me to make an approxi- 

 mate estimate of about twenty per cent, per annum as 

 the average rate of mortality at all ages among these 

 birds. Compared with the human rate in this country, 

 which is from year to year about seventeen per 

 thousand, this rate of ours is heav}" enough in all con- 

 science ; yet if it is viewed side b}' side with the eighty 

 or ninety per cent, of the newl}' caught wild birds, it 

 conclusively points to a progressive immunization on 

 the part of our little yellow friends. 



