The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-03-01
BIRDS IN CAPTIVITY.
An Industry that Furnishes Re-
rnunerative Employment
to MANY.

Few people are aware of the extent
of the traffic in cage birds in this
country Over. 100000, chiefly canaries,
are imported every year. That seems
a great many until one reflects that
they are scattered over a wide area
and distributed among a great many
people. The impulse that leads to
making domestic pets of birds is not
dissimilar to that which leads to the
cultiva ton of flowers. Both are beau
tiful to look at, and the fragrance of
the flowers is more than offset by the
melody OF the birds. Singing and
other birds are kept in captivity in
almost every country of the world, and
no one knows how early the practice
began. There is record of parakeets
being brought with Alexander's army
from India, and they are still known
as Alexandrian parakeets, and African
parrots were brought to Rome in
Nero's time, where they were kept in
cases of ivory and tortoise shell with
silver wires.
OF the total importation last year
274,914 were canaries, and 1888 were
made up of other varieties, 5000 being
parrots. Most of the canaries are
raised in the Hartz mountains in Ger
many where the trade amounts to
100000 year. Their average whole
sale price ranges from $36 to SIS per
dozen, though a very fine singer will
sometimes bring $3.50. A great num-
Der of variations of the canary has
been produced by breeding, and some
of them, though inferior as songsrers,
bring high prices for their shape and
color.
The parrots come from almost all
the tropical countries-Australia, Cuba,
Mexico, Central and South America,
and Africa, and the African gray par
rot is undoubtedly the best ta1ker, and
sometimes seems to show human in
teIligence in its speech. They are ex-
tremely long lived.
The variety OF other birds imported
from Europe is very great. There are
bullfinches and goldfnches, skylarks
and chaffinches, thrushes, blackbirds,
and the real robin redbreasts. Some
few nightingales come also, but refuse
to sing in captivity From the East
there are also a large number of
favorite cage birds. Java sparrows,
Japanese robins, japanese nuns, straw
berry finches, and the shama thrush
and bulbul from India. Few African
birds sing, but many are imported for
their beauty of plumage. This is true
also of Australia and South America,
in both of which countries some very
brilliant species are found. There was
formerly large trade in our domestic
birds. Mocking birds, bluebirds, cardi-
nails, tanagers. indigo birds, and nom
parcels were trapped not only for home
use, but We're exported in large num-
bers and We're bred in foreign Zoolo-
gical gardens. Now, however, that
bird protective legislation has been
adopted in most of the States, there is
becoming correspondingly more plenti- i
full in their native haunts.
The principal bird importers keep
men in the field to capture them, nets
being generally used. They are ship |
ped in large boxes holding from 100 TO
$50, and a caretaker goes with them. /!
Canaries come in small wicker cages,
which are Grated together. They are
far the more popular of the feathered
tribe. One department store in Phila-
uS1pilld SOIu 9,oVO dl SHElSlHldS.
II is remarkable that no one in this
country should have taken up the rails
ing of cage birds as a business, and
still more remarkable that there
should be so few aviaries here. Hun
dreds of country places have extensive
lighthouses and cultivate exotic plants
and flowers at great expense. Would
1t not be equally feasible and much
more interesting to possess a choice
collection of rare and beautiful birds,
with their brilliant, varied plumagen
their graceful, fascinating movements,
and their tuneful melody
Enquirer.