Our  Canaries 
53 
CHAPTER  III. 
AVIARIES  AND  OUT-DOOR  MANAGEMENT. 
AN  AVIARY  DEFINED. 
TO  the  mind  of  the  great  majority  of  Canary  breeders  the  single  term  aviaries 
suggests  little  beyond  a  large  more  or  less  ornamental  cage.    So  far  has 
custom  and  conventionality  carried  public  opinion  as  to  the  proper,  and  once 
believed  only  rational  method  of  cultivating  this  domestic  pet,  that  the  compos 
mentis  of  a  fancier  electing  to  discard  the  orthodox  system  of  cages,  and  giving  the 
birds  liberty  in  a  larger  space  where  the  use  of  the  wings  might  be  developed 
would  until  quite  recently  have  been  seriously  doubted.    That  there  was,  and  is, 
a  certain  amount  of  method  in  the  idea  will  be  presently  seen.    But,  fortunately, 
there  is  in  these  days  a  perceptible,  even  if  very  slow  and  gradual,  swing  of  the 
pendulum  towards  a  more  rational  method  of  keeping  and  breeding  the  popular 
Canary,  and  it  is  quite  within  the  range  of  probability  that  in  a  very  few  decades 
hence  the  system  of  keeping  and  breeding  birds  in  small  cages  will  have  lost  much 
of  its  present  popularity.    In  any  case  it  will  have  been  amply  proved  that  our 
fancy  Canaries,  although  evolved  from  the  original  stock  by  the  intervention  of 
human  skill  and  selection,  is  yet  a  sufficiently  natural  production  to  succeed,  had 
it  been  properly  managed  during  its  evolution,  under  practically  similar  conditions 
as  its  original  prototype,  which  no  one  considers  for  a  moment  requires  any  kind 
of  special  hot-house  treatment  to  ensure  its  well-being.    To  take  an  analogous 
case :  no  one  considers  for  a  moment  that  the  highly  bred  fancy  Fantail  pigeon 
really  requires  a  much  greater  amount  of  artificial  treatment  than  the  common 
types.    Why,  then,  should  our  fancy  Canaries,  which  are  no  further,  even  if  they 
are  anything  like  so  far,  removed  from  the  original  stock,  be  supposed  to  require 
such  vastly  different  conditions  ?    The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.    It  lies  in  the 
simple  fact  that  during  the  process  of  evolution  artificiality  has  been  the  keynote 
of  their  whole  treatment  and  management,  so  that  to-day  the  birds  are  lacking  to 
a  great  extent  in  the  natural  power  to  adapt  themselves  wholly  to  normal 
conditions.    But  with  the  increased  spread  of  treatment  and  breeding  under 
normal  conditions  this  power  will  be  rapidly  restored,  and  the  practicability  of 
breeding  good-class  Canaries  in  out-door  aviaries  in  the  future  is  by  no  means 
restricted  to  the  dreamland  of  visionary  hopes. 
TYPES   OF  AVIARIES. 
The  various  types  of  large  cages  which  are  styled  aviaries  have  already  been 
dealt  with.     A  more  worthy  type  of   indoor  aviary  consists   of  partitioning 
off  a  portion  of  a  room,  where  a  whole  room  cannot  be  set  apart  for  the 
pursuit  of  the  hobby,  by  means  of  J-in.  mesh  netting  nailed  on  to  a  wooden 
