Our  Canaries 
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out  of  the  direct  line  of  the  cages.  It  is  also  advisable  to  improvise  a  workable 
ventilator  by  removing  a  pane  top  and  bottom  from  the  window  and  replacing 
it  with  a  piece  of  finely  woven  wire  gauze  or  some  similar  substance  which  gives 
free  access  to  air,  but  will  keep  out  all  else  save  impalpable  dust.  If  sufficiently 
fine  in  mesh,  it  will  admit  air  in  a  steady  stream  at  all  times  with  practically 
no  danger  of  draughts  unless  a  gale  should  happen  to  be  blowing  direct 
into  the  window.  This  contingency  is  easily  provided  for  by  having  an  inclined 
cover  over  the  spaces  which  may  be  closed  at  will,  or  raised  to  an  inclined 
plane  which  will  divert  the  inrush  of  air  in  an  upward  direction  towards 
the  ceiling.  Perforated  zinc  must  not  be  used  for  this  purpose,  unless,  indeed,  a 
:sort  of  frame  is  made  of  the  required  size  by  fastening  together  two  sheets 
of  zinc  with  at  least  one-eighth  of  an  inch  of  space  between  them,  and  the 
■sheets  so  arranged  that  the  perforations  do  not  come  opposite  each  other. 
This  will  break  up  the  current  of  air  passing  through,  and  to  a  great  extent 
prevent  draughts,  and,  in  combination  with  the  afore-mentioned  covers,  at 
all  times  will  form  a  very  tolerable  substitute  for  the  wire  gauze  panes,  when  the 
latter  cannot  be  obtained. 
HEATING  THE   BIRD  ROOM. 
The  necessity  or  otherwise  of  heating  rooms  for  the  proper  keeping  and 
breeding  of  Canaries  has  always  been  a  vexed  and  contentious  one.  On  the  one 
hand  there  is  the  fancier  who  honestly  believes  high-class  stock  cannot  thrive  and 
■do  its  best  if  allowed  to  feel  a  breath  of  cold.  Common  mongrel  stock  may 
Nourish  under  such  circumstances,  but  his  aristocrats  in  feathers  are  not  as  they. 
Thus  he  reasons,  and  consequently  the  greater  part  of  the  year  finds  his  stock 
under  conditions  somewhat  analogous  to  the  exotics  of  the  hot-house  gardener. 
He  has  his  antithesis  in  the  fancier  who  goes  to  the  other  extreme  and  decrys  all 
forms  of  heat  as  anathema,  and  the  bane  of  all  would-be  breeders  of  healthy  and 
robust  stock.  And  it  must  be  admitted  at  once  that  the  followers  of  both 
extremes  count  among  their  number  successful  breeders  and  exhibitors  of  high- 
class  stock.  There  probably  exists  no  breed  to-day  that,  taken  as  a  whole,  is 
more  liable  to  be  termed  delicate,  by  reason  of  its  highly-strung  and  extremely 
nervous  temperament,  than  the  Belgian,  yet  we  have  in  memory  a  good  old 
Northern  fancier  of  the  breed,  now,  alas!  gathered  to  his  fathers,  who  attained  no 
small  amount  of  success  with  these  birds  in  the  exhibition  world  in  former  days,  and 
who  was  opposed  on  principle  to  all  forms  of  artificial  heat  in  his  bird  room.  During 
the  winter  months  exercise  of  a  practical  kind,  in  which  the  birds  had  to  find  the  use 
of  their  wings  rather  than  heat,  was  his  watchword,  and  with  him  the  method 
certainly  worked  well. 
We  can  further  recall  many  interviews  with  some  of  the  foremost  breeders 
.and  exhibitors  of  our  times,  in  which  this  question  has  cropped  up.    In  this  place 
