The Canary Book: Containing Full Directions for the Breeding, Rearing and Management of Canaries and Canary Mules , livre ebook

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230 pages

English

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This vintage book contains a comprehensive handbook on keeping canaries. It includes full directions for the breeding, rearing, and management of canaries and canary mules; information on cage making; formation of canary societies; exhibition canaries, their points, and how to breed and exhibit them; and all other matters connected with this fancy. This book constitutes an invaluable resource for the modern canary breeder, and it would make for an great addition to collections of related literature. The chapters include: “Cages and Cage-Making”, “Breeding and Management”, “Mule Breeding”, “Diseases”, “Moulting”, “Miscellaneous”, “The Original Canary”, “The Belgian”, etcetera. This antiquarian volume is being republished now in an affordable, modern edition - complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on aviculture.

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Birds

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Publié par	Read Books Ltd.
Date de parution	23 mars 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781446547557
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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THE CANARY BOOK.
LANCASHIRE PLAINHEAD CANARY.
THE CANARY BOOK:
CONTAINING
FULL DIRECTIONS FOR THE BREEDING, REARING, AND MANAGEMENT OF CANARIES AND CANARY MULES; CAGE MAKING, c.;
FORMATION OF CANARY SOCIETIES;
EXHIBITION CANARIES, THEIR POINTS, AND HOW TO BREED AND EXHIBIT THEM;
AND ALL OTHER MATTERS CONNECTED WITH THIS FANCY

Illustrated.

B Y ROBERT L. WALLACE.

THIRD EDITION.
Enlarged and Revised, with many New Illustrations of Prize Birds, Cages, c .

LONDON : L. UPCOTT GILL, B AZAAR B UILDINGS , DRURY LANE, W.C.
NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, 153-157, FIFTH AVENUE. 1904.

PREFACE
TO THE THIRD EDITION .

I N consequence of the great and rapid progress that has been made during the past ten years in the art of Canary-breeding, I have found it necessary to issue a Third Edition of the C ANARY B OOK . In doing so I have endeavoured to treat fully and accurately upon every subject of interest to lovers and breeders of these delightful pets.
I have now given a full and complete account of those direful maladies, Typhus and Scarlet Fever, the result of over twenty years experience and study since my first discovery of these diseases attacking birds. Their cause, prevention, and general treatment are fully discussed. Further, I have included information on some maladies not hitherto mentioned, and have extended my remarks on other complaints from which birds are known to suffer. Other subjects not previously dealt with in this or any other work on Canaries are also treated, and I have endeavoured to set right several matters that have hitherto given rise to contention and heart-burning among fanciers generally.
On several varieties of Canaries, including Yorkshire Fancies, Norwich Plainheads, Lancashire Coppies, Lizards, London Fancies, and Germans, I have considerably extended my remarks, and have given the fullest information possible about the Modern Crested Norwich, Cinnamons, Cinnamon Crests, Evenly-Marked Cinnamons, and the Modern Scotch Fancy birds of the most approved types; with instructions how to breed, rear, and prepare them for exhibition. Particulars of the variety now known as the Border Fancy are also included. In fact, I may fairly claim that the book is brought completely up to date.
Several new plates of birds of the most modern type have been added, while those which I consider out of date have been removed. The latest and most reliable recipes for obtaining the best specimens of Red- and Yellow-fed birds will be found, as well as formul ; for the preparation of other foods to be used during the breeding- and moulting-seasons.
All the information given in my previous editions which will enable amateurs and others to trace the progress that has been made in this science during the past eighteen years, has been retained, and the present edition may, I confidently think, be fairly considered as complete and searching as the most fastidious fancier could desire it to be.
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.

I.
-C AGES AND C AGE-MAKING
II.
-B REEDING AND M ANAGEMENT
III.
-M ULE B REEDING
IV.
-D ISEASES
V.
-M OULTING
VI.
-M ISCELLANEOUS
VII.
-T HE O RIGINAL C ANARY -G ENERAL R EMARKS
VIII.
-T HE B ELGIAN
IX.
-T HE G LASGOW D ON , OR S COTCH F ANCY
X.
-T HE M ODERN S COTCH F ANCY
XI.
-T HE M ANCHESTER C OPPY
XII.
-T HE Y ORKSHIRE F ANCY
XIII.
-T HE C INNAMON
XIV.
-T HE M ODERN C INNAMON
XV.
-T HE C INNAMON C RESTED
XVI.
-T HE E VENLY-MARKED C INNAMON
XVII.
-T HE N ORWICH F ANCY
XVIII.
-T HE M ODERN P LAINHEAD N ORWICH
XIX.
-T HE M ODERN C RESTED N ORWICH
XX.
-T HE L IZARD
XXI.
-T HE L ONDON F ANCY
XXII.
-T HE B ORDER F ANCY
XXIII.
-A NY OTHER V ARIETY OF C ANARY
XXIV.
-C ANARY M ULES
XXV.
-W ASHING C ANARIES
XXVI.
-P REPARING B IRDS FOR E XHIBITION
XXVII.
-C ANARY S OCIETIES, AND C LOSE AND O PEN S HOWS
THE CANARY BOOK.

CHAPTER I.

C AGES AND C AGE - MAKING .
T HE ingenuity and skill of man are so vast and varied, and the success which has been attained in the art of cage-making is so prodigious and wonderful, that it would be a task of no inconsiderable difficulty to any person to attempt to give anything approximating to a full and lucid description of all the different patterns of cages that are to be met with in this country; nor do I propose to do so, but simply to give a description of those which I consider best adapted to the wants and requirements of the times; for cages can be met with of every conceivable form and size, from an overgrown mouse-trap to a moderately comfortable apartment-that is, so far as length and height are to be considered-and in form they may be procured from that of a common fig-box to a miniature representation of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. I have seen cages of almost every imaginable pattern, representing cottages, abbeys, castles, cathedrals, and palaces, with fine fluted columns, porticoes with pediments, stained glass windows, c., rich and varied in design, and in every known style of architecture, including Gothic, Doric, and Ionic, and displaying great taste and marvellous mechanical skill. Cages of this description are generally the production of some ingenious and industrious fancier, and whilst I admire them as works of art and masterpieces of workmanship, I regret I cannot recommend them as fitting habitations for birds; for, with very few exceptions, all such cages lack that most essential requirement-utility. Every consideration of comfort and convenience is sacrificed to carry out the design in its entirety, and hence many of those cages are, despite their external grandeur, mere dungeons for canaries and other birds. Nevertheless, I am a great advocate for handsome cages; but what I admire most is artistic skill, combined with elegance of design, practical utility, and sound, substantial workmanship; for I consider a good bird worthy of a good cage, upon the same principle as I contend that a good picture is deserving of a good frame.
It is the highest ambition of some fanciers to possess high-class birds, and, so long as they succeed in accomplishing this object, they care little as to what kind of tumble-down, broken, twisted, rickety, rusty, patched-up cages they keep them in. They appear to go upon the principle of the bucolic Scotchman, who, so long as he received good victuals, did not care in what fashion they were served; whereas an epicure-which in this instance I will compare with a genuine lover of birds-is generally as particular about the manner in which his viands are served as he is about the viands themselves. I have heard it said that half the enjoyment of a good dinner is in the way it is placed on the table, and in order to enjoy a good bird I consider it ought to be seen in a suitable cage; in this I feel confident that all true lovers of those pretty little choristers will agree with me. I consider it a gross insult to good taste to place birds of undoubted excellence and merit in cages which are not worth as many pence as their occupants are worth pounds. Besides, a good, well-made cage will outlast a dozen flimsy common ones, to say nothing of the difference in appearance.
C AGE-MAKING .-If you have a latent tendency to the mechanical in your composition, and are possessed of a little ingenuity as well, you only require patience, perseverance, and practice to enable you to become your own cage manufacturer. It is a tedious occupation, to be sure, and more particularly so to those, I should imagine, who are not fanciers themselves; but with a genuine love for birds, and your enthusiasm wound up to fever-heat, it is astonishing what feats of enterprise and skill you can accomplish.
If you resolve to make a trial of your talents in this direction, I would advise you, in order that you may have a fair chance of success, to rig up a temporary bench to work at. A strong old table or, better still, a good old kitchen dresser, which may usually be had for a trifle at a sale by auction, will answer the purpose admirably. Fit on to this what is called in joiner s vernacular a bench lug -that is, a piece of wood projecting from the left-hand corner of the bench, in front, say from 6in. to 12in. in length, and fastened to a piece of stout wood forming an arm from the under-part of the top of the bench; it must be set at an acute angle, and appear as in Fig. 1 . This is to hold the wood you desire to plane in an upright position. You will likewise require an angular piece of wood, called a plug, to fix it firmly between the bench and the lug (see Fig 2 ). The board to be operated upon with this contrivance must be placed on edge next the bench, and the plug put in between it and the lug, and wedged tight with a wooden mallet. When you wish to plane the flat surface of the board, you will need a small iron hook driven well into the bench with the point projecting towards you; fix the end of the board with the hook in order to keep it steady during the operation. There are proper contrivances for this purpose, but a small hook is all that would be needed in cage-making.

F IGS . 1 AND 2. T EMPORARY C ARPENTRY B ENCH .
In addition to a bench you will require a set of tools as follows: Three saws-a handsaw, a dove-tail saw, and a keyhole saw, and if you intend to make ornamental cornices to your cages, a small frame-saw as well; two planes at least, a smoothing-plane and a trying-plane, and, if you like, a jack plane for rough work besides; I would likewise recommend you to get two grooving-planes, to groove and tongue the boards which form the back of the cage. These planes are known in the trade as a pair of ploughs, and are of different sizes according to the thickness of the wood for which they are required; when for in. deals they are called half-inch ploughs, and so on. Glue in the tongue, and this will not leave any aperture or receptacle for bird vermin to enter and conceal themselves. You wil