CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
A WORD ABOUT BIRD-KEEPING.
MY KITMITGHAR ‘SAM.’
HELENA, LADY HARROGATE.
COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS.
MALAPROPOS.
THEODOR MINTROP.
THE MONTH:
SPRING.
ERRATUM.
No. 739.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1878.
A WORD ABOUT BIRD-KEEPING.
We have never looked with perfect complacencyon the keeping of birds in cages; for it looks verymuch like an unnatural imprisonment. They havenot space to fly about, and there is something painfulin seeing them flitting up and down on two orthree spars within very narrow bounds, or lookingthrough the wires of their cage as if wishful to getout. It would, however, be of no use to remonstrateagainst a practice that is common not onlyover all England but over the whole civilisedworld. Besides, the keepers of pet birds are notwithout arguments in their favour. Most of thebirds to be seen in cages, such as canaries, goldfinches,or siskins, have been bred in confinement.They never knew what it was to be at liberty, andin their helpless inexperience, if let loose, theywould inevitably perish. There is much truth inthis species of excuse for bird-keeping. Someweight is also to be attached to the plea that thelittle creatures are, generally speaking, so happy intheir captivity that many of them live to an oldage—say twelve or thirteen years, and keep onpiping their ‘wood-notes wild’ to the last. Theremay be the further apology, that the maintenanceof birds in cages communicates happiness toinvalids, or to persons who do not go much fromhome. There is cheerfulness in their song, and adegree of amusement in witnessing their movements,as well as in attending to their simplewants. Altogether, therefore, there is a good dealto say for bird-keeping. It is not quite so inhumanea practice as it at first appears. In short,birds, like dogs, may be viewed in the light ofdomestic solacements kindly sent by Providence.Their society and grateful attachment help to fillup many a melancholy gap.
These ideas have been suggested to us by anaccidental interview with a Dealer in Birds, whoin his own way was apt in the philosophy of thesubject. If people would have birds, it was hisbusiness to supply them with what they wanted,and he did so with as great tenderness of feelingas the fragile nature of the article dealt in demanded.He had much to explain respecting theimportation of song-birds, and the breeding of themin cages. But on neither of these points shall wesay anything. What especially interested us werethi