60 



CANARY BIRDS. 



oughly that the bird cannot peck any off. The colour is, 

 of course, a matter of choice, but a dark colour will be pre- 

 ferable, because the bird will stand out in better relief from, 

 it. The most beautiful and most to be recommended are 

 the cages which have on each side above the drawer a 

 pane of ground glass about a hand high. As for the rest, 

 the arrangements of such cages are pretty universally 

 known. 



Aviaries. — The greatest number of canaries are bred in 

 aviaries., or, which is the same thing, in large cages which 

 often contain up to 150 heads, and can be located within 

 the dwelling-rooms. Very few birds are bred in small cages. 

 According to the size of such an aviary, three, five, or more 

 males are placed together with five or six females for each 

 male ; in no case two males only should be put into a cage, be- 

 cause they usually quarrel, and wage a continuous war with 

 one another, so that the hatching is frustrated, while a third 

 male always separates the combatants. It is therefore 

 deemed necessary to have the males always in odd numbers, 

 but the same end will be served by having more than two 

 males. Whatever be the name given to such an apartment, 

 it is materially always the same thing, and experienced 

 breeders are of opinion that a really profitable breed can 

 best be obtained in aviaries and not in small cages, although 

 favourable results are occasionally obtained in the latter. 

 Bocker, touching upon this subject, says the detached hatch- 

 ing cage has that advantage over the aviary, that the in- 

 dividual bird can be more easily watched and- removed, if 

 unfit for breeding ; but, on the other hand, it has some 

 drawbacks, as, for instance, only one or two females can, in 

 the former, be allotted to each male, while, in the latter, the 

 number of females can be increased to three or four, then the 

 feeding consumes more time and the breeding is more re- 

 strained. The young birds bred in an aviary, generally 



