346 Caxaries and Cage-Birds. 



Parrots have been kept as domestic pets by the Romans shice about 50 B.C., and else- 

 where in Europe since the fifteenth century, when the discovery of America and the circum- 

 navigation of the Cape of Good Hope led to their importation. The smaller foreign cage-birds 

 were exceedingly rare in Europe as late as 1850. In i860 a list of about sixty species 

 would have named every foreign bird then imported into Europe for sale. Ten years 

 later about two hundred varieties of foreign birds arrived in the course of a year in Europe, 

 whilst at the present day a complete list of all the foreign birds imported alive would 

 include some seven hundred names. Some of these birds arrive only in single specimens, 

 and very rarely, whilst others are brought to this country in thousands of pairs, and as articles 

 of commerce. 



Australia supplies a large and rapidly increasing number of beautiful or brilliant birds, most 

 of which have the advantage that they are easily kept in confinement and in our climate. Brazil, 

 notwithstanding its wondrous bird-life, has, with the exception of Parrots, not very many birds 

 suitable for cage-life. The mighty rivers of that country are very favourable to the development of 

 insect life, and consequently the majority of the gorgeous Brazilian birds are entirely insectivorous, 

 and as such not easily provided for during long voyages, or for keeping on artificial food after 

 arrival in Europe. Africa supplies an immense number of birds to the European bird-market. 

 Scarcely a ship leaves the African coast without a number of Parrots, and boxes containing 

 hundreds of delicate little Waxbills, Weaver Birds, &c. These are brought to London, Liverpool, 

 Marseilles, Bordeaux, and to other ports in tens of thousands. Notwithstanding a very large 

 percentage of the Waxbills die on the voyage, and others arrive with the seeds of disease and 

 soon end their existence, thousands of little African Finches are often sold in one bargain, and 

 then find their way in dozens or hundreds to the retail dealers. 



These little strangers, and, in fact, all foreign Finches, seem to make themselves more 

 at home in their cages than our European birds ever do ; they never display that restless 

 craving for liberty, which Goldfinches and Linnets rarely forget. In keeping exotic Finches, we 

 feel, when contemplating them, that they are entirely dependent on us, they have been brought 

 from distant climes and entrusted to our care, and the demeanour of these little birds is such 

 as if they knew they were entirely dependent on their keeper and felt the utmost confidence 

 in him. It has been proved by the experience of years, and by many experiments, that it is 

 often much easier to keep even a delicate foreign Finch in confinement than their apparently 

 much more robust European cousins. 



Few of the foreign Finches can fairly be called songsters of merit, and on the whole they 

 cannot compare in this respect with our wild birds. There are some, however, whose song 

 deserves to be called by that name, like the little African grey Singing Finch and the green 

 Singing Finch, Critliagra {fringilla) musica and Crithagra {fringilla) Hartlaubi, whose notes are 

 certainly equal, if not superior, to our Siskin's. Amongst the foreign soft-food birds there 

 are a few of great merits as songsters. 



Notwithstanding the enormous number of foreign birds annually imported into England, which 

 to many readers would appear incredible were reliable statistics available, the "fancy" (would 

 there were a better word) for foreign birds is really in its infancy in this country. To find its true 

 home we must cross the Channel and go to Germany. In England a Canary is kept in the 

 nursery, but scarcely ever in the drawing-room ; a talking Parrot may be found now and then 

 admitted into a dining-room ; but of a bird-room we very rarely hear in an English household 

 In Germany we find thousands of by no means wealthy people whose delight it is to keep, 

 to rear, and to study birds. The taste for foreign birds has grown to a surprising extent in 



