FOREIGN CAGE-BIRDS. 



By august F. WIENER. 

 CHAPTER XLI. 



GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF FOREIGN BIRDS. 



The most popular foreign cage-bird is the Canary, which has been described in such detail 

 in foregoing chapters ; but the Finch of the Canary Islands has been so completely 

 acclimatised since he became domesticated about three centuries ago, that Canaries are now 

 commonly thought of as a kind of European bird. Such complete success should encourage 

 further attempts in the same direction. It should, however, be observed, that a wild Canary 

 Finch on the Canary Islands or the West Coast of Africa resembles our European Siskin, if 

 we imagine the Siskin a trifle larger and the black marks on his feathers absent. The 

 golden colour of our household friend of the present day is due to the influence of captivity, 

 and the selection of stock for cage-breeding. Now besides the Canary, other foreign birds 

 have undergone, and are undergoing, a similar great change of colour as a result of cage- 

 breeding. The Japanese breed piebald and pure white Manikins from a little brownish-black 

 Finch, and the Chinese breed white Java Sparrows. During the last year or two Australian 

 undulated Grass Parrakeets {P. nndiilatiis) have produced several yellozv instead of bright green 

 young ; and it is not at all improbable that in ten or twenty years' time these Parrakeets 

 may be bred regularly of a colour as diff"erent from that of their ancestors, as a bright lemon- 

 coloured Canary is different from his wild brown and green original. 



Curiously enough, the wild Canary {Serinus canarius) is said to have been found in England in 

 some few cases. As these birds are not frequently imported, it is more than improbable that those 

 found in England had escaped from captivity ; consequently we must assume that a small Finch 

 may be driven occasionally by storms, or other causes, all the way from Western Africa to the 

 British coast. This statement may surprise many readers, but if the lighthouse keepers were to 

 collect all the bodies of the multitude of migratory and other birds which break their skulls 

 against the lighthouse lanterns at night, attracted by the dazzling or flashing lights to deviate 

 from the path of their migrations, many more curious ornithological facts would probably be 

 found. A few years ago the writer saw an African purple-headed glossy Starling (Lamprocolms 

 auratus) shot that very day in Essex. A careful examination of the plumage showed feathers 

 so perfect that the bird could scarcely have been confined in and have escaped from an aviary ; 

 and how that bird came to Essex has never been explained. The rose-coloured Starling, whose 

 ordinary home is India, is met with in Central Europe in considerable numbers, but at intervals 

 of many years. The distinguishing line between non-migratory European and foreign birds 

 is therefore not quite so clearly defined as it is popularly supposed to be. 

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