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, but one 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 



