2 20 CaxVaries and Cage-Birds. 



most sensitive specimen without the slightest apprehension as to the consequences, but the 

 birds can be kept in fair show condition by the free use of the bath. Repeated drenchings 

 with warm water by means of a fine syringe, allowing the bird to dry itself before a fire, will 

 do much to cleanse the plumage, but it must not be only half done. Dirt is not a show 

 element, and thoroughly dirty birds are apt to be overlooked in a show-room for no other 

 reason than that they suggest the idea of worthlessness, something not worth attending to, and, 

 consequently, not worth much critical examination. 



The last trait to be mentioned is that the Belgian has conscientious objections to displaying 

 his merits on an empty stomach, though he is often called on to do so. He is not like a 

 bird which can be inspected as well when busy at his seed-box as at any other time, and so 

 long as he is under examination, which may last for a considerable length of time under the 

 judge in the show-room, and be repeated at short intervals by any visitor desirous of asking 

 him a question, he is practically debarred from getting a bite ; and the better the specimen, 

 the greater the probability of his suffering from this cause. It is therefore advisable, when 

 sending valuable specimens from home, to provide them with a supply not only of seed, but 

 also of nourishing " soft " food off which a bird can make a good meal in a short space of 

 time ; and this, we advise, should never be neglected. The first thing a Belgian should see 

 when uncovered in a show-room should be a tempting breakfast in the shape of some 

 chopped hard-boiled egg and bread-crumbs or crushed biscuit. If this be supplied over-night, 

 as, of course, must be done before despatching on a journey, the mixture should be dry, to 

 prevent the chance of turning sour ; but when there is the opportunity of feeding in the 

 early morning, as is frequently permitted as an act of courtesy in the case of these valuable 

 birds, the bread may be first soaked in clean water and then squeezed as dry as possible 

 before mixing with the egg. After a good meal of this description a bird will show much 

 better than when his mind is bent on his seed-box, and will be the better able to stand the 

 fatigue of a long show-day, during which it will be manifest he may have but small chance 

 of getting another substantial feed. It is the neglect of simple precautions such as these 

 which takes so much out of a bird during an extended show-season, when it has sufficient to 

 contend with in the way of ordinary and extraordinary fatigue, without having added to the 

 consequent tax on its energies the evils attendant on irregular feeding. 



In conclusion, we feel that we have done but scant justice to a bird, the peculiarities of 

 which are not to be learned in a day. Some of the positions we have taken up we know 

 are not exactly in harmony with the views of English fanciers, but we believe that when the 

 bird comes to be better understood and more extensively bred among us it will be found 

 that what we have advanced is, in the main, in strict accord with the idea of the bird as held 

 by the leading Continental breeders, whose the bird essentially is, and to whose opinions we 

 defer. We think we have told the story before, but the lesson is so fitting that we tell it 

 again and append it as the " moral " of what may have been to some a dry chapter. We 

 once thought we could play Whist ; but one night, after making a spectacle of ourselves, a 

 friend tendered us the sage advice to throw overboard ail our ideas on the subject, study 

 " Cavendish," and save seven years of our life. 



And now for the Scale, touching which we will give our Antwerp " Licfhebbcr" the honour 

 of almost the last word. " You should have seen," he writes, " tlie wonder expressed on tlie face 

 of the gentleman who acts as the principal judge in Antwerp when I showed him a tabulated 

 scale of points. 'Not but,' said he, 'that would do well wjicn the prix (riiomicur is on the 

 topis, but lioiv can you judge PROPOR'llON ? '" That is just the question. How can we judge 



