THE TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE pared for the purpose, sometimes containing as many as one hundred and fifty individuals. Parrakeets come from Australia in great packing cases which occasionally accommodate five hundred of them-this method being practicable because of their peaceable disposition. On the other hand, where quarrelsome birds are concerned, such as bullfinches, goldfinches and male canaries, each individual has to be put in a cage by itself, else there would be trouble, and damage to the feathered livestock might result. After arrival in this country, the imported birds are forwarded to all parts of the United States by express at double rates, with enough food and water supplied to last them until they reach their destinations-though, where large consignments are involved, it is customary for agents to accompany them. Several of the largest dealers have branch establishments at various points, such as Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans, to facilitate the traffic. Canaries are obtained by agents who buy them of breeders in the Harz Mountains, the Tyrol, and other parts of a row. confined in small wicker cages, seven of Europe. For transportation they are which are strung on a stick, forming what is technically known as When shipped across the ocean these rows are crated and a linen or burlap usually contains thirty-three rows. sack is placed about each crate. A crate paraphrase the old riddle, every sack has thirty-three rows, every row has seven Το sometimes two if the occupants are the cages, every cage has one canary-or more peaceable females. shipped in one consignment. Each of Often more than two dozen crates are these must be opened every day of the voyage, every row removed, and food and water placed in the cages. In this daily re-crating the rows are rearranged so that the benefits of outside positions may be more evenly distributed among the birds. Canaries are raised for market in large numbers in England and in various other parts of Europe, but the region most famous for its production of these birds is the Harz Mountains, where the peasants hatch and rear them by tens of 10 How CANARIES ARE IMPORTED. CRATE OF CANARIES, FRESH FROM ABROAD. thousands. It is with them a household industry, the humble thatched cottage, which in frequent instances is the home of a family engaged in the making of wooden or papier mache toys, being often vocal with the trilling notes of the muchprized feathered songsters. By this means an important addition is made to many a meager income, the annual crop of canaries. shipped from those valleys fetching several hundred thousand dollars. The village of Andraesberg, in the Harz, is celebrated by reason of the circumstance that it produces a special breed of canary which possesses a song equalled by no other. In the breeding-rooms where the birds are reared nightingales and other song birds are kept, in order that the little warblers, which have remarkable imitative powers, may acquire their notes. After an extended period of this kind of training, the pupil canaries become teachers in their turn, and are employed to instruct beginners. It is worth mentioning incidentally that all of the queer little wooden cages in which canaries are shipped to various parts of the world, and in which they are exposed for sale in the shops of bird fanciers, are made in the Harz Mountains by children-even the very little tots of four or five years helping in the work. For this labor they receive about two cents a cage-certainly very little, when it is considered how strongly constructed the articles in question are, each one being provided with two perches, so that the feathered captive may have exercise, as well as with a feed box and water jar, the latter of earthenware. But it A FLIGHT CAGE FOR EAGLES. should be explained that the raw materials are furnished by factories, in the form of long wooden sticks readyshaped, which the children cut into proper length and put together, while the earthen water-jars are provided in the same way, being turned out by millions from pottery plants. The trained songsters used for teaching purposes are commonly known as "campaninis," and fetch extraordinary prices-sometimes as much as $150 for a single bird. Immediately after the arrival of a consignment of canaries at the establishment of a dealer, the interesting process of testing the vocal qualifications of different individuals is begun. The cages are placed on long shelves in a series of rows, one above another, and in front of them an expert in the business stations himself, to watch and listen. Many notes are to be heard, but it is difficult to determine from which of the scores of throats they proceed. This, however, is a task which the "tester" is called upon to perform; and, when he has satisfied himself of the excellence of the performance of any particular bird, he puts a chalk mark on its cage. The cages thus marked are afterwards removed, and their occupants are sold as "guaranteed" singers. The practice of keeping birds in cages appears to date back to a period long antedating the earliest dawn of history. Feathered creatures prized for their beauty or for their song were found in such captivity on the islands of the South Seas when they were first discovered; parrots and many other birds were similarly imprisoned by the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, long before Columbus discovered America, and doubtless the voices of bulbuls and other attractive singers added to the charms of the celebrated hanging gardens of Babylon. African parrots were brought to Rome in the time of Nero from beyond upper Egypt, where they had been discovered by explorers, and were highly prized both as pets and as table delicacies by the Romans, who kept them in cages of tortoise-shell and ivory with silver wires. A good talker of this species in those days often fetched a higher price than a human slave, The forthcoming Year Book of the Department of Agriculture (to advance proof-sheets of which the writer is mainly indebted for his material) contains an article on this interesting subject by Henry Oldys, who says that American parrots owe their first introduction to the Old World to Columbus, who carried a few of them back with him on his return from his first and most famous voyage of discovery. They were among the most striking trophies exhibited by him on the occasion of his formal and historic entry into the city of Seville. The most popular members of all the parrot tribe are the little green Australian parrakeets, which, familiar on the streets as fortune-tellers and performers of tricks, are retailed in this country at four or five dollars a pair. They are among the easiest of all foreign birds to raise, and one cause of their wide distri "TESTING." PICKING OUT THE BEST SINGERS. A GIANT AVIARY SO ARRANGED THAT PEOPLE MAY WALK THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF IT. bution over the world at the present time lies, oddly enough, in the fact that they are able to survive for an extraordinary length of time without water. Thus they can get along with a minimum of attention; and it is said on good authority that specimens have been shipped from Australia to Europe, a voyage of four months' duration, without a drop of water, arriving nevertheless in good condition. Among parrots the best talkers by far are those of the African gray species. Unfortunately, they do not endure endure transportation very well, a great majority of those imported dying soon after they arrive. Next in rank as conversationalists are the "double yellow-heads," from tropical America, which when well trained command prices ranging up to several hundred dollars apiece. It is worth mentioning, by the way, that these birds are commonly instructed in the art of speech nowadays by the use of specially-constructed phonographs, which automatically repeat, for hours at a time, selected words, phrases, or songs. During the last year about 325,000 cage birds were imported into this ,country, of which number all but 50,000 were canaries. Formerly and up to a very recent period, we did a large export trade in such feathered captives, but to this traffic an effective stop has been put by the adoption of prohibitory laws in various states. Such enactments have been inspired by the efforts of the Audubon societies, which called attention to the fact that the depredations of the birdhunters were threatening to exterminate many of the most valued species-such, for example, as the mocking-bird, the bluebird, the cardinal, the tanager, the indigo bird, and the nonpareil. Happily, however, the danger has been averted. and in future there will be a fully adequate protection for the songsters which enliven our fields and woods with their tuneful vocalization. |