THE TAME CANARY. 



17 



lost no wild birds through convulsions. I myself had 

 several of these wild canaries and found them anything but 

 sensitive." 



When Bolle visited the islands, the price paid at Santa- 

 cruz, when buying several, was about 3d. per head, newly- 

 caught old males were sold for about a shilling. In Canaria 

 the prices were much higher, presumably because the birds 

 are scarcer in that locality ; now, an old bird cost, according 

 to E. Bocker, about four shillings, and a young one, at least 

 5d. to 6d. The wild birds are said to be lower in price than 

 the tame ones, and from this the writer infers that those 

 sold in the trade as wild-birds are genuinely such. 



At the present time, living wild-birds are but rarely 

 imported to Europe; when dealers offer for sale wild 

 canaries exported from St. Helena, those are generally birds 

 of another species, principally the " Fringilla naviventris " 

 (Gml.), and recently also the " F. canicollis" (Sums.) or 

 canary of the Cape. In the same manner other kindred 

 finch species are foisted upon buyers as wild canaries. I 

 first saw wild canaries at the Exhibition in Paris in 1867, 

 and in the course of years, I have, as already mentioned, 

 owned them both singly and in pairs, but, unfortunately, I 

 have never bred any. 



The Tame Canary. — Let us now turn to the tamed 

 bird and view him under his different aspects as, altered 

 through the influences of captivity, he presents himself 

 before us, in all his various breeds. To begin, we think it 

 astonishing that in, comparatively, so short a space of time, 

 such a thorough change of the colour, shape, and the whole 

 nature of an animal could have been effected ; for, not only 

 does the cultured bird appear to us to be taller, more robust, 

 and in some respects quite differently shaped, than the wild 

 bird, but we also behold it in numerous and quite different 

 colours, shape and form. His size is an average length of 



B 



