THE CANARY. 
legend does not say if it was a man who opened the prison 
door. In my opinion it was a boy — a cabin-boy — who had a 
mother and several little brothers and sisters at home. Boy 
or man it was a good deed, and I have no doubt helped the 
doer toward heaven. 
It is nearly three hundred years ago since the canary ship 
was wrecked, and since the brave yellow songster became known 
amongst us. To their credit they retain the good character 
that came with them, and our mothers and sisters regard this 
parlour pet, as it hangs in the window, in its splendid wire house 
hung about with crochet drapery, the work of their fair fingers, 
with as much pleasure as our great great grandmothers before 
crochet was invented, when birdcages were anything but 
splendid, and when the panes of the window in which the bird- 
house hung were cased in ugly leaden frames, and so small 
that a sun-beam was broken into a dozen pieces while endea- 
vouring to struggle through. 
The Choice and Purchase op Canaries. — The “pure” 
canary in these days is not a fashionable bird. Through cross 
breeding with the goldfinch and other birds, there are now 
nearly thirty varieties of the canary, each different from the 
other in shape and colour of plumage. To be a “perfect 
beauty,” a canary should possess the following characteristics. 
He should be very slim, and almost straight from the crown of 
his head to the tip of his tail. His ground colour should be 
yellow, — not the yellow of the lemon, but that of the Maltese 
orange. From the stump of the upper half of his beak over to 
the back of his pole, should be jet, glossy black, — not in the 
least speckled or “ splashed ” as it is called. His tail should 
possess twelve black feathers, and each wing eighteen feathers 
quite black, from the tip to the quill. His legs and feet should 
be clean, bright, and free from warts or other blemishes. 
Bear in mind, however, that it is by no means necessary for 
a bird to possess all these outward beauties to be a good singer. 
In the first place, the price that would be asked for such a 
bird as the one above described would hardly leave sufficient 
change out of a five-pound note to buy a birdcage with ; and, 
unless papas have grown more liberal than they were when I 
was a boy, such a sum would as near as possible represent two 
years’ pocket-money. But, as I have already observed, there 
is no need to go to “ fancy ” prices for a good singing-bird. 
As William Kidd truly says, “ colour should at all times be 
sacrificed to accomplishment.” I go further than that. I have 
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