13 



offenders can be identified, and the outside cage facilitates their 

 capture without detriment to the better behaved ones. 



Altogether, breeding in rooms in the promiscuous and polygamous 

 manner referred to has been found to present, the greater advantages ; 

 a few are here given. 



Apart from the saving effected in running only a few males with 

 many females, the latter are allowed to fulfil their parental duties 

 without being importuned by impetuous lords to hurry on pre- 

 parations for the second nest before they (the hens) are ready. The 

 young are reared in a near approach to nature's freedom, some at 

 least of their natural instincts being allowed full play, which 

 concession cannot be granted to those reared in cages. Many a 

 hungry fledgling receives a charitable contribution from a totally 

 unrelated bird who has fortunately observed its necessity. Many a 

 young cock of the first brood will, on the arrival of the second batch, 

 although he is himself only some two months old, consider himself 

 in duty bound to assist in the rearing of his successors, and will con- 

 tinue to make himself generally useful, as long as he is allowed to 

 share in the few cubic feet of space which so far has been his world, 

 and his Elysium. It will be easily understood that birds reared 

 under such circumstances are exceedingly healthy, strong on the 

 wing, and possess well-developed organs to forward the perfecting of 

 their song. They have been begotten by natural selection of the 

 parent birds, who were not arbitarily pared by their owner with a 

 view of perpetuating points pleasing to the said owner's fancy. All 

 the G-erman breeder has studied is equality of strain with the sole 

 object of ensuring the maximum number of progeny endowed with 

 that formation of the vocal organs necessary to produce the song of 

 a good German Canary. 



NESTING MATERIAL. 



One of the first things to think of when preparing for the season 

 is the material for nest building, and the Germans appear to have hit 

 upon something which is not only suitable to the requirements of 

 the callow brood, but also to cure certain bad habits of the parents, 

 or better still, to prevent those habits from being contracted by 

 them. It is contended that the use of proper building material 

 would all but annihilate the reprehensible habit of the old birds of 



