109 
JUSTICE TO THE CANARY I 
trary, is born and bred in captivity, and can live out his little 
life happily in a cage. But the wonderful thing is that so few 
people in choosing a cage give the slightest consideration as 
to its fitness for the little inmate. If they are lavish in their 
expenditure, they take it out in tin roofs and pinnacles and 
bells, no matter that the light of day is thereby more or less 
obscured. The surface of the roof is ornamentally arranged in 
concaves, to the further discomfort of the canary. As to the 
question of how he is to get at his food, that is of the utmost 
insignificance, compared with the primary object of having the 
cage as smartly ornamental as possible. Paint and gilding are 
liberally applied, and the canary beguiles his ennui by picking 
them off, to the detriment of his digestion. Any notice of the 
structure of his foot, or the diseases to which it is liable, in 
regard to the make and arrangement of his perches, never enters 
the mind of the average canary keeper — but of this more anon. 
If the choosing of the cage be limited by parsimony, then — 
plus all the disadvantages I have noted, except perhaps the 
bells, which are an extreme luxury — the cage will be a four square 
of about ten inches — or worse still, a cylinder in shape. I wish 
that all who are guilty of this last atrocity might expiate their 
own sins inside a similar instrument of torture. Such are the 
wrongs of the canary at the hand of mankind ; then, to add 
insult to injury, a clever man comes along, and derides him for 
his bad taste in cages. “ Lower middle-class refinement ! ” 
quotha! “small gentlemanly residence”! “Do I have one 
chance in a thousand of choosing my own house? ” the canary 
might pertinently retort. And these wise men are so sweeping 
in their generalizations. Mr. Gosse’s short method with canaries 
reminds us of the psalmist’s impulsive judgment on his fellow 
men. But the grievous thing to a reallyimpartial mind is that he 
lets himself be so blinded by the phantasm canary of his own 
imagination as to be incapable of perceiving, in the bold and 
beautiful portrait of Miss Benson’s “ Jack,” what is patent to 
any one who has ever been honoured with the intimate affection 
of a canary — that he is all his mistress’s fancy paints him. 
A canary-lover of many years’ standing, I look back with 
gratitude to many little green and yellow friends all bright and 
interesting and intelligent in their different ways ; for there is as 
much variety in the character of canaries as — pace Mr. Gosse — 
in the colour of their plumage, which is by no means the uniform 
tint he would have it. There was Zoroaster, so named through 
an unfortunate misapprehension of her sex, a lovely, fluffy, 
golden ball, who loved to parade up and down in front of the 
looking-glass, a thorough little coquette, full of airs and graces. 
She had much force of character withal, and had to the full that 
autocratic temper which is a great feature in tame and fearless 
canaries. To her mistress she was always a benevolent tyrant, 
coaxing, wheedling, and threatening by turns ; but her attitude 
towards Frenchman Johnnie, her meek little spouse, was 
