Extreme Nervous Sensibility. 211 



fpund that cold did not permanently affect it, even when it was so intense that the water in 

 the fountains was frozen." The way in which some of them knock about the country during 

 the .show-season proves they can stand a considerable amount of wear and tear, and though 

 they may not be able to exhibit themselves to perfection in the variable temperature of our 

 show-rooms, that really does not go far in evidence of a generally weakly constitution. On the 

 whole, we think there would be some difficulty in disproving the accuracy of the above opinion, 

 though the variable character of our English climate must be taken into account as a disturbing 

 element materially affecting the question, since the bird can scarcely yet be regarded as thoroughly 

 acclimatised in this country, where we sometimes enjoy the luxury of the four seasons and the 

 wind blowing from every point of the compass in twenty-four hours. Climatic alternations have 

 frequently more to do with physical geography than with latitude and longitude. Fruits will 

 ripen in the north which cannot be brought to perfection in Cornwall, while delicate plants 

 which will not grow at all in northern latitudes will stand a south-west winter unprotected. 



The sensitive organisation previously referred to is also sometimes mistaken for physical 

 weakness by the casual observer who is accustomed to the ringing, ear-splitting music of an 

 English bird-room where the occupants are as bold and impudent as sparrows. Says our observant 

 correspondent : — " Our high-bred birds are sensitive to a degree, even to the positive ill-effects of 

 certain colours. One morning, going into my bird-room, having on a red smoking-cap, in passing 

 one of my cages containing a single bird, I noticed it stagger and fall off the perch, and before I 

 could introduce it to an apparatus which has saved the life of many a bird, it was beyond my 

 assistance. In the meantime, an unusual amount of fluttering was going on in my other cages 

 until I bethought me of my offending cap, the removal of which at once caused peace and 

 quietness. Since then I find my training-rods always more effective ivlien tipped with red sealing- 

 wax. I have made numerous other experiments with my birds, but the majority of them were not 

 sufficiently pronounced, or were perhaps too much the subject of exceptional conditions to be of 

 much interest, but on the whole they warrant me in arriving at the conclusion that this variety is. 

 anything but the weakly-constituted bird it is imagined to be by many : its over-sensiciveness has 

 been mistaken for weakness. In one point only is there, I believe, any weakness to be found more 

 pronounced than in other varieties which I have had to do with, and that is in regard to the legs 

 and feet of young birds, any defect in which, I need not say, is a serious drawback. Let them be 

 startled out of their nests when young, and down to the bottom of the cage they go ; and, as any one 

 v/hohas had to do with young birds knows, it is one thing to put them back, and quite another thing 

 to persuade them to stay; but it may be taken as nearly certain that if they do not remain, or great 

 care be not taken of their legs, feet, and claws, deformity or weakness, more or less serious in its 

 character, will ensue, and then good-bye to a firm, easy stand. I have noticed, at Ghent, a plan 

 they have well calculated to counteract this misfortune, and it may be a 'wrinkle' for English, 

 breeders : it is to cover the bottom of the cage with rye-straw. When the rye is mown in Belgium 

 it is tied up more carefully and in much smaller sheaves than in England, and the flail— for 

 Belgium is still in a primitive state so far as agricultural implements are concerned — is used only to 

 the heads, so that the body of the straw remains unbroken. These straws are cut into lengths to 

 suit the cages, and spread evenly over the bottom, admirably serving the purpose desired, taking 

 the weight off the foot when extended, and giving it a notion of grasping." We think this is not 

 the least valuable " wrinkle " which has come to us from across the " silver streak." It is perh.aps, 

 strictly, a " management " item, but we give it as bearing on alleged constitutional weakness, as 

 does also the following. 



" Another fallacy is that these birds- will, not or cannot bring up their own young. I, believe. 



