XVl 



--contests for the satisfaction of the people 

 with a fancy for those spectacles. 



Aviculture, as we understand it at 

 cipresent, is a very recent phase of bird- 

 •keeping. The term was first coined and 

 ^■ased by the founders of the Avicultural 

 Society of London in the latter part of the 

 19th century. The object of the Society 

 as to encourao-e birds to live and thrive 

 in congenial conditions in captivity in 

 •order to study their habits and the bio- 

 logical or ornithological phenomena for 

 adding to the stock of our knowledge of 

 'bird-life. Foreign birds are to be exten- 

 sively imported and studied. Before the 

 ■establishment of this Society, bird-keeping 

 in Europe followed a standard which was 

 ^not exactly the present scientific one, 

 and was rightly designated 'fancy'. The 

 training of birds to imitate artificially 

 created trilling sounds resulted in the 

 nicely quavering song of the German Roller 

 Canaries. The fanciers were also bent on 

 anule-breeding and development and fixa- 



