1 82 The Canary Book. 



occurrence should be fully recorded in this book, and if properly 

 and carefully kept it will prove both valuable and interesting 

 for future reference. The one kept by myself is arranged as in 

 the following page. 



When a bird dies or is sold, the fact should be duly recorded 

 in the column headed " Remarks." If a bird dies during the 

 breeding season, and the survivor of the pair is mated with 

 another partner, it will be advisable to make a new entry in the 

 diary, as if it were a distinct pair of birds. It will be found a 

 somewhat tedious occupation to keep a journal of this descrip- 

 tion at first, but after you get accustomed to it, you will regard 

 it more in the light of a pleasant pastime than that of an 

 arduous task ; and I can assure those who adopt this method 

 that the perusal of these records in after years affords an agree- 

 able, interesting, and instructive amusement, and the amount 

 of pleasure derivable from such a source can only be realised 

 by those people who are themselves ardent and enthusiastic 

 lovers of birds. 



STUD BOOK. Having given on the opposite page a specimen 

 entry of my mode of keeping a Diary of Bird Breeding, I will 

 now proceed to give one of my " Stud Book " as well. This 

 book can be compiled from the diaries principally, but whenever 

 you make a new purchase, or claim a bird at any show, you 

 must find out its pedigree as best you can; if you fail to do 

 this, then you must content yourself by entering it with such 

 particulars as you know, and state such facts as the following : 

 " Claimed at .... Show, No. 301, V.H.C.," or whatever else 

 may be the state of the case. 



If only it would become a general practice to show all birds 

 with a distinguishing name at our exhibitions, in the same way 

 as dogs and other animals are shown, it would give a keener 

 zest to those who are directly interested in them, and a stud 

 book could be kept much easier, and the pedigrees traced back 

 for many more generations ; but, as matters stand at present, 

 few fanciers care to go beyond the performances of the birds 

 they possess, and that of their parent birds, and few, if any, 

 attempt to get beyond the performances of their grandsires and 

 granddams, because it necessitates such a large amount of 



