Our  Canaries 
41 
only  two  brief  references  need  be  made,  as  more  evidence  on  both  sides  will  be- 
given  at  a  later  stage.  Both  these  references  come  from  breeders  of  the  Yorkshire 
in  its  native  county,  which  cannot,  by  any  stretch  of  the  imagination,  be 
considered  a  mild  or  temperate  climate.  In  the  first  case  the  room  is  tersely 
described  as  "an  attic — top  floor,  lean-to  roof,  lighted  and  ventilated  with  a 
skylight.  .  .  .  the  aspect  to  the  North-East  not  at  all  inviting."  Yet,  the  record 
goes  on,  "no  artificial  heat,  the  birds  having  to  stand  the  vagaries  of  an  English 
climate — vagaries  never  so  apparent  as  in  this  particular  district,  where,  as  the 
American  says,  we  get  only  samples  of  weather,  and,  I  am  obliged  to  admit,  bad 
samples  too!"  Another  extract 
from  an  account  of  a  visit  to 
another  prominent  exhibitor 
runs: — "Up  we  go — to  an  attic^ 
an  attic  and  no  mistake.  Cold, 
rather,  no  protection  save  the- 
reof and  a  paper  ceiling,"  and 
here  again  the  account  points. 
out  in  definite  terms  that  in  this 
breeder's  room  "no  artificial 
heat  at  all  is  used."  Yet  all 
these  birds  were  no  common 
low-bred  stock,  but  birds  of 
the  bluest  blood  which  always 
held  their  own  in  the  strongest 
competition  of  the  day.  Even 
more  striking  is  the  experience 
in  this  branch  of  Mr.  E.  Pretty, 
one  of  the  best-known  and  re- 
spected of  present  day  breeders, 
whose  experience  in  keeping 
and  breeding  birds  in  the  open  air  will  be  given  presently,  and  who  quite  recently 
wrote  us:  "I  have  kept  Canaries  out  of  doors  in  cages  24  inches  long,  20  inches 
high,  18  inches  deep,  for  two  years.  I  have  found  out  the  secret  of  keeping 
Canaries.  They  are  as  hard  as  nails.  No  covering  but  the  top  of  the  cage  to 
shelter  them  from  the  clouds." 
SEED-HOPPER,  made  of  tin,  with  glass  back, 
also  "lipped"  sides  to  obviate  seed  waste. 
DISCRETION  ESSENTIAL. 
Let  these  remarks  not  be  misconstrued.    In  no  other  branch  of  the  hobby  is 
there  greater  need  for  discreet  and  individual  judgment  on  the  part  of  the  owner,. 
It  would  be  the  merest  folly  to  take  birds  indiscriminately  and  without  due  regard 
to  their  previous  treatment  and  manner  of  breeding,  and  submit  them  all  to  what 
