Plucking not Defensible. 87 



we have "tailed and flighted" many a score without a thought; but sitting down quietly, 

 as we do now, to supply what we think is an existing want in our Canary literature, and to 

 look at every feature of our subject from as intelligent and philosophical a point as we can, 

 we feel that we should not be true to ourselves if we placed it on record that tailing and 

 flighting, as understood by the Fancy, is a means justified by the end sought. It is with 

 a settled conviction that we pen this, so much so that we scarcely like to advance anything 

 in palliation of the practice lest we should find ourselves fencing with a subject on which our 

 mind is fully made up. But there is just one feature in the case to which we feel bound to 

 refer. The same authority we quoted in giving the definitions of the various feathers says — 

 " The feathers of birds, while they remain perfect and firm in their connection, are really 

 parts of a living animal, and as such they must be regarded as organs of feeling. They do 

 not, probably, in themselves feel pain, but they are in intimate connection with parts which 

 do. The epidermis in no animal appears to feel pain, even in those parts of the animal which are 

 regarded as being more immediately the organs of sensation ; but they very speedily transmit 

 impressions to the parts that do feel." A good deal seems to depend, then, on the feathers being 

 " perfect and firm in their connection," and the experience of every breeder will point to the fact 

 that very frequently they are not so. The entire nest-tail, for instance, is no sooner fully matured 

 than it requires some care to prevent its being knocked out by the bird fluttering about in its cage, 

 and the occurrence of the tail coming out in the hand when a bird is caught is so frequent as to 

 cause no surprise. This seems to suggest anything but the idea of "firm connection ;" and whether 

 it be that from confinement and non-exposure to the eff'ects of a free atmosphere the tail-feathers 

 become prematurely matured, or that the ground in which they are planted is less tenacious than 

 the more muscular covering of the framework of the wing in which the flights are placed, there is 

 no getting away from the fact that the tail is so easily dislodged that, in the case of the two 

 varieties in which the presence of the nest-tail is an indispensable show condition, prudence 

 suggests not only that they should not be handled, but that specially-contrived cages should be 

 furnished them to reduce the probability of an accident to the tail to a minimum. We do not 

 mean to say that the tail is always in this loose state, but when we find it so we believe we cause 

 the bird not the least pain, but do it a positive service, by pulling it all out. We say " pulling " it 

 out, but we might have said, blowing it out ; for in such case a puff" will scatter it, and it requires 

 more care to keep it in than trouble to pull it out. This, however, does not apply to the 

 wings, in which we find the quill-feathers more securely fixed, as they have a much heavier share 

 of work to perform than the appliance rigged aft, and there is no denying that it does take 

 a little jerk to pull them out. We cannot tell what is the amount of pain inflicted, but 

 surely there must be some — possibly in some cases less than others — for even flight-feathers 

 are apt to come out in a most provoking way when they are not wanted, as the experience 

 of an hour's washing of dirty birds will confirm. Yet if we take a score of young birds two 

 months old, we don't think there would be a loose wing-feather found in the lot. The pain 

 of extraction may be much, or it may be as imperceptible as that occasioned by pulling out a 

 hair, and the statements of those who talk of quivering flesh and broken bones are met by dis- 

 passioned counter-statements that the operation is perfectly safe, and the pain, if any, instantaneous. 

 But the way we wish to put the case is this : we cannot think that the end to be accomplished is 

 such as to demand that it shall be done on the ground of necessity, and as there is a doubt in the 

 case as to the amount of pain inflicted and the extent of its duration, we do not think it right 

 that, practically, it should become imperative on a fancier to do that which he seriously objects to 

 froni the highest motives, We do not hold with a spurious sensitiveness which, while it bores the 



