BIRDS AS PETS 387 



Mouse (J/, musculus) differ chiefly from one another in colour. 

 The curious evolutions of "waltzing mice" appear to be due to 

 defects in the structure of the internal ear. 



Among other rodents serving as pets may be mentioned — the 

 Alpine Marmot {Arctomys inarmotta), the Dormouse [Ahiscardinus 

 avellanarius), the Squirrel {Sciurus vulgaris), and the Guinea-Pig. 



BIRDS (AvES) AS PETS 



The number of species represented among pet-birds, includ- 

 ing those which are better described as "captives", is very large 

 indeed, and it will be unnecessary to mention more than a few 

 of them. 



Perching Birds (Passeres). — Many of these are domesticated 

 on account of their beauty or vocal powers, or both, and not a 

 few of these have exchanged the sweets of liberty for a small 

 and uncomfortable cage. To treat small birds in this fashion is 

 scarcely less than criminal. Large aviaries, of course, are on a 

 somewhat different footing. Fortunately the objection does not 

 apply to the most popular of all pet birds, the Canary {Sei-imts 

 canarius, fig. 1274), of which countless generations have been 

 brought up in captivity, and of which the numerous strikingly 

 different breeds may almost be regarded as artificial products. 

 Newton makes the following remarks about this bird (in A Dic- 

 tionary of Birds): — "It abounds not only in the islands whence 

 it has its name, but in the neighbouring groups of the Madeiras 

 and Azores. It seems to have been imported into Europe very 

 early in the sixteenth century. Turner in 1544 speaks of the 

 birds ' qtias Anglia aues canarias tiocat\ a statement confirmed 

 by the poet Gascoigne, who died in 1577, and speaks ... of 

 'Canara byrds '. Gesner had not seen one in 1555, but he gave 

 an account of it ... , communicated to him by Raphael Seller 

 of Augsburg under the name of Stukeru'dgele. The wild stock 

 is of an olive-green, mottled with dark-brown above and greenish- 

 yellow beneath. All the bright-hued examples we now see in 

 captivity have been induced by carefully breeding from any 

 chance varieties that have shown themselves; and not only the 

 colour but the build and stature of the bird have in this manner 

 been greatly modified. The change must have begun early, for 

 Hernandez, who died in 1587, described the bird ... as being 



