216 The Canary Book. 



following ; the single fare is 15s., return tickets cost 22s. 6d. 

 The passage occupies about twenty-four or twenty-five hours 

 from port to port. The Hotel de 1'Europe is a place where 

 every comfort can be procured ; all waiters and servants speak 

 English, and the charges are extremely moderate. Any further 

 information about the boats, &c., can be procured from Messrs. 

 Gee and Co., agents, Hull. No fancier need be deterred by the 

 fact that he is unable to speak the language of the country, as 

 any of the waiters at the hotel I have named will readily get 

 him an interpreter, who, on payment of a small fee, will 

 accompany him to the different breeders, and assist him to make 

 his purchases. Besides Antwerp, good birds can be obtained at 

 Brussels and Ghent, these being the three principal towns for 

 getting the best birds at. Prices vary in accordance with quality 

 and the particular season of the year; the best time to go is 

 probably the month of September, after the close of the breeding 

 season, as birds are most plentiful then, and as a matter of 

 course you have a better chance of selecting something to suit 

 you, and at a lower price than you would pay at a more advanced 

 period of the year. The Belgians set great value upon their best 

 birds, and high prices are demanded for prize specimens, but 

 moderate or faulty birds highly bred can be purchased at reason- 

 able prices. High class birds range from forty francs upwards 

 (1 13s. 4d. in English money), but fabulous prices are asked for 

 rare gems. Belgian canaries are readily acclimatised in England 

 and Wales, as also in Ireland and Scotland ; there is not a great 

 difference in the temperature of these countries. Belgium lies 

 between 49deg. 30sec. and 51deg. 30sec. north latitude, and 

 between 2deg. 30sec. and 6deg. 5sec. east longitude, whereas 

 England including Wales extends from 49deg. 58sec. to 55deg. 

 46sec. north latitude, and from 5deg. 40sec. west, to Ideg. 

 45sec. east longitude. These birds, however, do not endure the 

 cold so well as most other known varieties. The Belgian 

 fanciers esteem their own breed of canaries far before all others, 

 and set little value upon some of our esteemed varieties, such as 

 Norwich Fancy, Lizards, and the like. 



CONSTITUTION. Belgian canaries are probably the most do- 

 mesticated of a,ll the tribes of the Firing ilia Caw aria, and on thie 



