The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-04
N Il wy o n K1s s. mn q.
New YORK, Oct. 4.
The Rird Rusiness.

ways have been suggested of providing employ
ment for the weaker sex Chat wants to be on
equal terms with the stronger) that it is q won
DER the idea of the bird-business has never
occurred to the Susan-Anthonyites as coming
within this domain. What could be pretter
than q feminine brd-fancer? There is some-
think so graceful and tender in the care of birds
that 1t seems the most natural thing in the world
to relegate it to the female hand. 1t requires
no great strength; it is not a hard life; it does
not tax bone and sinew; it makes no
call upon those moral and physical qualities
which are believed to be essentially masculine.
1t docs, however, demand an affectonate dis
position, patient, loving, assiduous habits,
gentleness and dwinningness-man of those quail
ties, in short, which (shall / say by q pleasant
fiction p are thought to be necessarily feminine
Consequently, / commend the bird question to
the consideration of the ladies who are slowly
revoutionizing the world from their eunningly-
woven web in East Twenty-third street of this
city. In New York at least, If in no other city
Of the Union, there ought to be nice opening
for an ambitious young woman among the BIRDS
for there is a constant importation of feathered
songsters, as well as of feathered flying animals
who don't sing.
Canary birds, for instance, are brought to this
port in large numbers, by men who make it the
business of their lives to deal in them. Some
times very rarely it is true, ii happens that
vessels entire cargo consists of them, and once
on a time a ship-load of yellow w-throated war
blers, numbering some thousands, has been
wrecked, and the cargo of carols scattered to
the waves and winds. There are plenty of
bird-fanciers in the city, too, who recollect the
time when an entire invoice of between and two
r lousand English sparrows pershed from
n he thoughtlessness of drunken attendant, who
Of fln
age, that he entirely forgot the necessities of
the little ones. This happened at time, too,
when there was a demand for English sparrows
in this city, and when, consequently, they might
have been disposed of at any price between five
dollars and twenty-five. Of course, nowadays,
that kind of bird would not bring anything like
the old price, for the parks and gardens have
become overstocked, if anything, with them.
They have done excellent service IN eXtirpatng
worms and caterpillars, and as a sort of vermi-
fuge on wings, their efficiency is not to be de-
spised
The kind of bird most numerously brought to
this port, however, is that member of the finch
family called the canary or the cdrdueliS cana
- ia. Instead of being brought direct from the
Canary Islands, as is fondly believed by many,
they are imported hither from Germany, where
their breeding and rearing are very carefully
superintended by simple-mindede peasantry who
are familiar with their every habit, and tho
roughly understand how to feed and discipline
them am not San reporter, but have in
] terviewed many bird-fancier along Chatham
street and North William street, and | find that
the Canary Islands much unknown to
them, even by name, as though they had never
existed 1t is almost exclusively from Germany
thatthese birdypeople obtain their golden-necked
tvterers. Hence they are brought over to this city
in tiny mites of cages made of willow The
looker-on among the aviaries that flourish near
the City Hall Park must surely have noticed
those little bird-houses, not much larger than
those miniature cottages which form an old
fashioned ornament on so many provincial
mantel-piece. At the most they are not more
than four inches square, and have the rooi
somewhat rounded. Appearances are against
the belief that in this contracted domicile the
little bright-breasted occupant leads happy
life But it is cne of those many cases in which
appearances are not to be trusted. Balancing
himself lazily on his perch, like good-naturet
cynic who is determined to be happy in quie
way he seems to be silently accruing the mate
rial for song. Every now and then he bursts
forth, as though able to keep in no longer; bu
so constant is the din of his brother birds around
him. that his voice causes no perceptible swell
to the chorus. ....
does the singing. His frau has quite enough tC
do in laying eggs and Matching them, and in thi
respect SETS to the ladies above referred to il
East Twenty-third street, an example of whcl
Horace Greeley would no doubt approve sine
he has turned his back, for the time being, OF
the sex. All that the bird ess is ever allowed t.
do in a-vocal way is to put in chirp now AM
then, which doubtless goes for or yes, as tn
case may be, in answer to her husbands persist
ent monologue AS for him, all he ever does
to battle, to banquet, and to break into song II
is sort of transmigrated Harold Skimpole
who by some mysterious process of metempsy
Ghosts has passed into his present state, an
MARBLES life away, while other birds do the res
hard work of avary existence.
These male canaries sell, variously, at fror
ten to fifteen dollars apiece, the females ne
being worth more than oRe-tenth that amoun
Like all other warblers, he is eXorbitantly pal
for what he does.
It sometimes happens that people who devot
all their lives to enc pursuit, refine upon i
various departments to such an extent as
spoil, for every one but themselves, the varior
distinctions they make. This is true of I'll
canary-bird fanciers of New York. One of the
fayorite distinctions is between the long-brec
and the short-breed canares. The long-bree
is much the more valuable bird Why! AS
the bird-fanciers along Chatham street. Th'
NAV be able to tell you? 1 can't, though
have questioned them repeatedly. The shor
breed is the canary in its natural state, with
throat full of song, golden plumage, full breat