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NATURE NOTES. 
Maying-time, plaj’ing-time, Heaven-time, earth-time. 
Bird-time, and herd-time, oh pass not away 
Till love for all living, and innocent mirth-time 
Crown thee, by Derwent, the Queen of the May. 
H. D. Rawnsley. 
JUSTICE TO THE CANARY ! 
T is almost a truism to say that one is sure of a treat in 
! any article signed with the honoured name in litera- 
I ture of Mr. Edmund Gosse. His bright and animated 
' review* of Miss Benson’s charming book. Subject to 
Vanity, is no exception to this rule ; but its literary merits will 
scarcely suffice to mollify the wounded feelings of those readers 
who practise the “ cult of the canar)'” — to use IMr. Gosse’s own 
phrase — for the levity of his remarks anent that interesting but 
too frequently misunderstood bird. 
Poor little canary ! his fate is indeed hard. More than any 
other feathered fowl he is the victim of civilization. Accli- 
matized to hot rooms, his inheritance is captivity ; we lords of 
creation have made him an artificial being ; breeding and 
selection have modified his form, and introduced limitless 
variety into his plumage. We have cultivated his talent for 
singing till he is as much a masterpiece of art as a prima 
donna in the latest fashion by Worth. And yet — we humans 
are a stupid race — how little do we really understand the 
quaint, lovable and affectionate little bird-soul that dwells 
inside the canary’s green or yellow coat ! Nine canarj- keepers 
out of ten, if they give their victim — I cannot say pet — seed 
and water and an occasional bit of groundsel, think they have 
done all that justice or mercy can require ; as if they themselves 
would like to be kept on a perpetual diet, say, of mutton and 
cabbage. They take no interest in the canary, and he naturally 
returns the compliment and expects no good from them ; but 
solaces himself in his purgatorial existence with song, and an 
occasional conversation with the sparrows, if he has luck enough 
to be at an open window. 
There is no ground for repugnance at the sight of a caged 
canary, such as anyone with sense and feeling must experience 
at the spectacle of the piteous caged thrushes and blackbirds, 
which are so unhappily popular among our peasantry, or, 
worse still, the hapless skylark, imprisoned in a limit of a few 
inches, beating his wings against the wires, in vain remem- 
brance of his heavenward flights. The canary, on the con- 
Nature Notes, 1S95, p. 61. 
