396 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



i; As a people, Americans have less of this spirit than prevails else- 

 where. Despite the multitudes of birds weekly entering the country — 

 a single vessel will occasionally deliver ten or fifteen thousand — our 

 interest in avicultural pursuits is comparatively slight. In Europe 

 aviaries are numerous, and their owners maintain a common interest 

 by means of avicultural organizations and periodicals. Bird shows 

 are held annually or oftener in London, Berlin, and many other 

 European cities. A friendly but keen rivalry prevails among the 

 owners of aviaries as to which shall first succeed in breeding species 

 that have not previously been bred in captivity, or in producing new 

 hybrids. The journals and magazines devoted to aviculture serve as 

 a medium of exchange of methods and experiences, and keep their 

 readers in touch with each other. In Germany, particularly, the 

 practice of keeping, rearing, and studying cage-birds is very common. 

 In many a dwelling one room is set apart for birds, and these bird- 

 rooms are not confined to a particular class, but are found in the 

 homes of people of every rank and condition. As long ago as 1880 some 

 two hundred societies of amateurs existed, and several weekly publica- 

 tions and magazines devoted to birds attested the general interest in 

 avicultural pursuits. 



" The breeding of cage-birds for sale is a regular occupation in 

 several parts of Europe. Germany produces hundreds of thousands 

 of singing Canaries in tbe Hartz Mountains, those of St. Andreasburg 

 being unrivalled songsters; in England, Scotland, and Belgium fancy 

 varieties of Canaries are regularly bred for the trade ; and at the Boyal 

 Society's Zoological Gardens of Antwerp, Belgium, the breeding of 

 many species of foreign cage-birds is systematically conducted. 



" The United States has few aviaries, and most of these are devoted 

 to Pheasants and other large birds. For a few years an avicultural 

 periodical was published, but the support it received was apparently 

 insufficient, and at present there seem to be no periodicals and very 

 few associations strictly devoted to aviculture. Hence in this country 

 there is not tbat community of interest and information that charac- 

 terizes the avocation in Europe. America supports a few small sbows, 

 mainly exhibitions of Canaries ; and small exhibitions of cage-birds, 

 mostly Canaries, are usually held as adjuncts to the annual poultry 

 shows of New York, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, and other cities. The 

 breeding of Canaries and cage-birds for the trade in any numbers is 

 practically unknown on this side of the Atlantic. 



" Traffic in Domestic Birds. — The once extensive trade in native 

 American birds has dwindled to the vanishing point. Formerly 



