350 
NOTES TO THE 
bird's song by being brought up from the nest among them. 
As regards the canary market in England, the great breed- 
ing places are Norwich, Yarmouth, Yorkshire, Leicester, and 
Manchester. These places supply the London market with 
canaries. Canaries are mostly bred by shoemakers during 
tlie summer, and sold to the London trade from October 
till March. They are sent up in " scores," one score being 
twenty pairs. If you were to send for a " score " of canaries, 
they would send you forty birds. The breeders prefer sending 
them in pairs. Three hens are charged as a " pair," The whole- 
sale price in the autumn is £4 per score. The price rises in 
the spring, and advances to as much as £7 per score. 
The most valuable and delicate canaries are the Belgians. 
When undisturbed they sit " all of a lump," but when the cage 
is taken down they show their beauty by lengthening themselves 
out like a telescope, and bringing themselves into form. Some 
will nearly pass through a large wedding ring, and birds of 
first-class will fetch as much as £10 per pair. The kind of 
canary most resembling the Belgians are the Yorkshire birds. 
These are also very long and graceful. They vary from 7s. 6d 
to 30s. per pair. Norwich, as a rule, produces the richest coloured 
birds. The motto is : — 
Nonoich for colour, 
Belgian for shape, 
And German for song. 
The best come from the Hartz Mountains. German birds are 
not much to look at, but command high prices on account of 
their beautiful song. 
Chaffinches, p. 41. — The London bird-catchers take great num- 
bers of cock chaffinches by dummies. A dummy is a stuffed finch, 
fastened on a peg, which can be placed on a fence or on a tree 
by means of a small sharpened wire on the end of the peg ; 
bird-lime twigs are placed under and above the dummy. The 
birds are attracted by the song of a call bird in a cage, which 
is placed or hidden in a ditch close by. The wild bird, thinking 
that the dummy is singing, comes down to attack it by striking 
at it ; the feathers of the wild bird get caught by the bird-lime 
and bird and twig fall to the ground. This plan can only be carried 
out when birds are in full song, when they are " off song " they 
will not strike at the dummy. The wild bird thinks the dummy 
is a poacher on his beat. 
There are four or five different ways of putting the chaf- 
finch's song into words. Thus one bird sings, Eing, ring, rattle, 
chuck wido ; " a good chuck wido/' is considered the best song 
