CHAPTER XIX 



CANARIES 



The canary is the only common cage bird. There are about 

 fifty kinds of birds that make desirable pets, but very few of 

 them will breed in small cages, and many will not breed in con- 

 finement even when kept in large aviaries. In the United 

 States the number of kinds of cage birds is restricted by state 

 laws which prohibit keeping native song birds in captivity. 

 Such laws are necessary to preserve the birds. Before these 

 laws were passed, great numbers of song birds were trapped 

 every year to send to Europe, where the keeping of cage birds 

 as pets is more popular than in America. Song birds from other 

 parts of the world may be kept in this country, but most of 

 them are so scarce and expensive that few people would buy 

 them even if the canary were not a more satisfactory pet. 



Description. The common domestic canary is a small bird, 

 about five inches in length, very lively and sprightly in manner, 

 and in color yellow or a greenish gray and yellow. The male 

 and female are so much alike that the sex cannot be positively 

 determined by the appearance. Although it often happens that 

 the male is more slender in form and brighter in color, the 

 voice is a better index of sex and, in mature birds of good 

 singing stock, is very reliable. The male is the singer. The 

 female also has a singing voice, but it is so inferior in quality 

 to that of the male that few people care for it. 



Origin. The domestic canary belongs to the finch family 

 and is found wild in the Canary Islands (from which it takes 

 its name) and in a number of other islands in that part of the 

 world. The color of the wild birds is described, by some who 



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