54 



CANARY BIRDS. 



better manner than was formerly the case ; but it is notorious 

 that the sending of the canaries purchased, often in many 

 hundreds, is, even now, carried out in the same manner as 

 in olden time when the Hartz birds were carried about by 

 hawkers. In Germany single valuable songsters are sent 

 by post on many days' journey, in the same way as is done 

 with all foreign birds, in transport cages more or less practically 

 constructed. Such a cage has wire railings on the front 

 side only, here the drinking-vessel is fastened, while the 

 seeds are often simply strewed on the bottom, or, which is 

 better, put into a receptacle placed there for that purpose ; 

 before the wire railings, a covering of dense linen is nailed 

 fast, into which a proportionate aperture is cut, to enable 

 the bird to see while eating and drinking. In the winter, 

 if the weather be mild, birds may be transported without 

 risk up to Christmas, and again in the middle or at the end 

 of February. A linen covering will be sewn around the 

 whole cage • straw is put between the linen and the wires, 

 and a piece of window-glass is fastened over the peep-hole. 

 In constructing transport-cages care should, above all, be 

 taken — particularly when the journey is long and the trans- 

 port occupies several days — that no water can escape or be 

 thrown out of the drinking-vessel which would cause the 

 bird to sit in the wet, and thus endanger its life. Specially 

 constructed drinking-vessels have, for this reason, been intro- 

 duced. The Post Office Secretary has, in the " German 

 Postal Guide," issued instructions for transport, from which 

 we quote the following : — "A small cage made of wooden 

 chips (that is, the Hartz-cage), as a rule 5 inches long 

 and 6 inches high, receives the bird, after having 

 provided food and water, which are put in the vessels 

 arranged for that purpose in the interior of the cage ; usually 

 only one bird is transported in each cage and case. The 

 food consists of the so-called "scft food," i.e., grated roll which 



