Canary Societies, and Close and Open Shows. 391 



exceed the amounts just mentioned, say, in any town with 

 a population of 14,000 inhabitants, but I prefer to be under 

 rather than over the mark in my calculations. We will pre- 

 sume that a schedule of prizes has been submitted to the 

 committee for approval by the secretary and sanctioned, that 

 a president and vice-president have been duly elected, and 

 the place of exhibition fixed upon; that the manager of the 

 hall or other building has been seen, and the days when it 

 will be vacant ascertained, with the terms for three days, 

 for it mu^t be taken for the day prior to the days of exhibition 

 to the public. The regulations must state that all birds are 

 to be at the place of exhibition on that day, for it takes a 

 long time to arrange all the classes properly, and this should 

 be done and the birds carefully attended to the night before 

 they are to judged. By this arrangement the judges can 

 begin their duties as soon as it is light enough for them 

 to see the birds properly, and it will enable them to do their 

 work in a calm and deliberate way, whereas, if birds are to 

 be received on the morning of a show, and the arrangements 

 are only completed in time to allow the judges an hour or 

 so before the public are admitted, they are very apt to lose 

 their equanimity, and consequently they perform their work 

 in a hurried and unsatisfactory manner. If care is taken 

 to explain this circumstance fully to the manager or secretary 

 of the building, in which the show is to be held, two days 

 only should be charged for. 



Before finally fixing upon the show days it must be ascer- 

 tained beyond all doubt whether another bird show is likely 

 to take place at or about the same time in any other town, 

 as it is an object of great moment to avoid clashing with any 

 other show of the kind, and would be likely to prove detrimental 

 to both. This can be easily ascertained by referring to the 

 list of shows published weekly in any of the papers which pro- 

 vide for fanciers, such as the Journal of Horticulture, Live Stock 

 Journal, The Stockkeeper, &c., or The Bazaar*; the last con- 

 tains as full a list as any of its contemporaries. As soon as 



* The Jiazaar has a system by which a show can be advertised in its columns three times 

 a week for the whole season, from the time of fixing the date until date of holding, for 10s. 



