11/RD HTYINC AXD IMl'ORTLWr. 



247 



BIRD BUYING AND IMPORTING. 



FEW people who own birds, or who are charmed by the sweet voices of the num- 

 berless varieties of songsters, are aware of the trials and hardships undergone in 

 obtaining and bringing them from a far-distant country. The men engaged in the 

 business of transporting birds are a tough, hardy lot, who must be capable of 

 enduring a vast amount of exposure and hardship, and must be possessed of 

 shrewdness and intelligence, otherwise success will not be assured. In the busy 

 season, each importiug-house employs from thirty to forty travellers, men who travel 

 back and forth, principally between Europe and America. Besides these, there are a 

 great number of pickers, who go from breeding-house to house selecting the singers, 

 and large numbers of men employed in the business at either end of the route. All 



are obliged to serve a certain length of time as 

 apprentices, usually two or three years, in. 

 order to accustom them to the different breeds- 

 of birds, and that they may become experts in 

 feeding, know the numberless ailments bird* 

 are subject to. and just how to prescribe for 

 each. Above all, they must learn to distin- 

 guish the sexes of all kinds of birds. When 

 one has learned this last, he is a master in the 

 trade, and secures a permanent position. The 

 time for breeding Canaries, the principal birds 

 imported, is from February until August. Ger- 

 many and England furnish all but a small part 

 of the Canaries raised in the world ; and the 

 great exporting-houses are all situated in Ger- 

 many, with distributing branches in the different cities, New York being the dis- 

 tributing depot for the United States. 



The early summer season, from May until the first of July, is the dull one ; 

 all business as regards exporting is suspended, for the Canaries are too young to 

 bear a long journey ; so in this dull season the different rooms in the large bird- 

 houses are thoroughly cleaned, repainted, and whitewashed, in order to free them 

 from any possible disease, or from vermin. Each large dealer controls a great num- 

 ber of breeders who raise birds, and deliver them when called for. In certain dis- 

 tricts in Germany, notably in the Harz Mountains, each village has its quota of 

 bird-raisers, many being well-to-do. The trouble and expense of raising Canaries 

 there are slight, and the profits are large. The number of Canaries raised by the 



