The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-02-08

brsedsr. After he has oanvasgsd his dis
rail- way station, and ships them 20 MI
employer. The crates 60 &c baggage. ans
the picker always accompanies them and
helps TO handle them. At the exporting
house, the bifds are unpackei and KEPT
until they are all In first-clsss condition
for shipping. From $4,000 to 80. 900 cana
riss are taken care Of daily; and during
received and sent out each week. Tbers
are great many rooms In the building.
no two kept at the anne temperature,
and the different birds ara allotted C
rooms, agreeing In degree Of GOLD with
the climate to which they have been 90
customed. A small army OF workmen u
employed; the apprentices cleaning, iced
Ing and watering, while the old hands
sort out the grades Of birds, doctor the
sick and prepare the stock for shipment.
"1hs strongest birds are selected fol
A merica, for the long ocean voyage play
havoc with any save the heAlthiest.
For the London market. color is the CHIEF
consideration. Two mon are always sent
with London consignment. one TO man
age the business, and q younger fellow
60 learn the ropes. M3re female canaries
are seat to England than elsewhere; fol
the street fakirs, In London, buy only
ths cheap female birds, take them home
and paint them skilfully, and then ped.
die them about the town. The man who Is
seat to America with . eousignment OF
birds has ID -. before him aud Il
takes wonderfully honest, sober and
faithful man to carty 10 through. HI
has i've large crates. which contain about
l, DO birds, and the probabilities are that
he will be Obliged to work for twenty
hours out Of the twenty four. He and
his charges are slowed away 10 tbs GOA
bankers or the stserage, where he maksi
the crates fast to the walls and floor. Hs
begins his work BY .. M, and spsndl
from one to two hours cleaning seed,
preparing food and drawing water fol-
the birds. Then his charges are fed and
watered, and each II carefully examined
for indioations Of sickness. The cages are
scrupulously cleaned. and the quartsri
ventilated rs we'll as possible. The slight
est neglect in all this care might brinl
about disease and long death list; ard
that would mean business ruin for the
man In charge. Sometimes the dreaded
bird peat, called echnappen, breaks out,
and then the tende. IL wild with despair.
Gases have been known whsrs, out oil
], 500 birds, not more than twenty were
alive when the consignment reached New
York. The ship rats are another dreaded
enemy; and, In spite Of all Vigilance, In
variably make way with few birds dur
Ing the voyage. Nothing in the world Il
more voyAoious than q ship rat; and al
though the bird tsndsr usually stays uT
most Of the night to protsct his charges,
the rats actually attack the cages aud de-
your birds before his very eyes One oil
the hardest problems that can confront q
bird ten Ter is long delay In tho voy age,
through some accident to the .ship. liz
the old days such situations were fire.
qusnt and the matterly way In which
bird rations vera shortened and made to
last was q marvel.
During good weather, the man In
charge Of the birds. may possibly accom-
plish his days work In ten hours; but, II
the sea II at all rough, he will be twice
that long In getting through the necss-
sary programme; and, when he reaches
New York, and hands the birds over &c
the proper persons, he 10 q sadly dem oral.
iced and sleepy German. Recently many
Of the exporters have been sending two
men with each shipment: and, In that
way, both the work and the risk are less
epsd materially, but the job isn't oinch,
any way you fix It,"