38 



CANARIES, HYBRIDS, AND BRITISH BIRDS 



should be covered with wirework, through 

 which the lever used to raise the window 

 can act, and it can then be elevated or 

 depressed at ])lcasure ; the wired frame, 

 too, presents an eifectual bar to the escape 

 of any birds which may find their way 

 out of their cages, and also ]>roves equally 

 effective in preventing tlie ingress of any 

 marauding cat. For a similar reason, 

 if there be a fireplace in the room — one of 

 the best ventilators — it should also be 

 wired over ; for where the chimney-pots 

 are of primitive construction, or where 

 there are none at all, cats not unfrequently 

 gain access by the chinmey. 



In the case of an ordinary window a wire 

 covering is still indispensable, and a per- 

 forated zinc contrivance, six or eight inches 

 deep, may be adapted to the top for use 

 when the state of the weather might render 

 it unadvisable to allow it to be opened 

 without some protection. A similar con- 

 trivance in the door or in the wall above 

 it, and as near the ceiling as possible, will 

 assist to keep up a supply of fresh air. A 

 ventilating brick, or one of the many simple 

 ventilators which can be opened and closed 

 at will, may be inserted in the wall or 

 door, instead of the perforated zinc, and 

 any trouble or expense incurred in doing 

 the work thoroughly will repay itself in 

 the health and comfort of the stock. 



As it is so near the roof, it might be 

 imagined that an attic would be either 

 uncomfortably warm or correspondingly 

 cold ; but the best breeding-room we ever 

 had was what Johnson defines to be " the 

 topmost room of the house," although he 

 gives the meaning of cock-loft to be " the 

 room above tlic garret " : ]icrhaps the 

 current of air in the cock-loft acts as a 

 gulf stream to the attic — a sort of atmo- 

 spheric (ly- wheel. 



A breeding-room can hardly be said to 

 be complete without some kind of heating 

 apparatus. To this it is pro- 

 Methods of i,.ii)ie some may demur, but 

 Heating. , ' . i i i i. 



wc can only say m rei)ly that 



those are fortunate who can do without it. 

 Such a variety of circumstances combine 

 to make the usage of one district different 



from that of another, that the " custom 

 of the port," with its statistical results, 

 must not be accepted as a standard rule 

 calculated to produce the like elsewhere. 

 Difference in latitude and variation in other 

 physical relations make just all the differ- 

 ence between the natural productions of 

 any two places, and a certain amount of 

 artificial treatment must be resorted to in 

 order to bring them on a level. AVe do not 

 say that Canaries would feel the rigour of 

 an ordinary English winter more in one 

 part of the country than in another, but 

 the critical time is when Nature begins 

 to wake up from her winter's sleep. In 

 some places she seems to slumber with one 

 eye open, and in others to relapse into a 

 state of such insensibility as to suggest 

 no awakening. In the one instance she is 

 quick in answering to the call, and balmy 

 airs soon arouse her from temporary 

 inactivity : in the other, pulse is almost 

 dead and circulation is induced c>nly by 

 long and gradual effort. 



So with occupants of our bird-rooms, who 

 are soon affected by external influences ; 

 their awakening indoors is simultaneous 

 with that out-of-doors, and every swelling 

 bud or early s])ring flower is but the in- 

 dicator of a corresponding spring-time in 

 bird-life. When the one is late in being 

 roused into life, so is the other ; and we 

 hear in some j)laces of pairing, nesting, 

 breeding, and all the excitement attending 

 it, weeks, aye, almost months before those 

 in a less favoured district dare even think 

 of making any preparations for the cam- 

 paign, lest too nuich haste might result in 

 disaster. To obviate the evils arising from 

 this, prudence would suggest that where 

 a reasonably early start is contemplated, 

 sometliing should be done to assist in main- 

 taining an equal)le tcmjieraturc, so that 

 breeding operations may be folk)wed out 

 independently of the weather. The way 

 in which Canaries are affected by climatic 

 alternations will be pointed out in our 

 chaj)ters on general management ; our 

 object here is to explain simple methods 

 of warming the breeding-room, by which 

 means the dangers attendant on early nests 



