Identifier: illustratedbooko00blak (find matches)
Title: The illustrated book of canaries and cage-birds, British and foreign
Year: 1878 (1870s)
Authors: Blakston, W. A Swaysland, W Wiener, August F
Subjects: Canaries Cage birds
Publisher: London New York : Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.
Contributing Library: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library

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eir wings tucked up closely,tails so nearly in the same line with the back that a plumb-line would not show muchdeflection. Some may differ from us in this respect, but we hold that the line from the shouldersto the tip of the tail cannot be too straight, and altogether dissent from opinions which prescribeas the correct line a form having an appreciable curve. On this question we perhaps holdextreme views, but we have been educated in a severe school, and have for years had opportunitiesfor closely examining some of the grandest Continental specimens, in all of which the line of theback is straight, in contradistinction to anything approaching a decided curve or a tendency The Straight Back and Tail. 193 towards circling, as it is sometimes termed. A model, cast in bronze, the accredited standardfor the year of one of the Flemish societies,of which an illustration is furnished in Fig. 55,stands before us, and also exhibits the straight back with the tail in a continuous straight hne.
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FIG. 55. — BELGIAN BKONZE MODEL. This formation is not depicted in Fig. 54, which is nevertheless a life-study of a bird which coulddo almost anything in regard to position. But our birds are now nicely steadied, and approaching them quietly, first divesting ourselvesof our tall hat, an object of dislike to a sensible Belgian—an evidence of its superior intelli- 194 Caivarjes AiVD Cage-Birds. gence and good taste—we gently scratch the underneatli part of the cage with the fingers or alittle wand. Sometimes a mere tick or gentle tap will do, and, when it zvtl/ do, the less rubbin-, andscrubbing, and chirping, and blowing off the steam, the better. Just a faint tap and a little scratchto attract attention, and they draw themselves up farther and farther till their legs are perfectlystraight and rigid, showing a portion of the thigh : a little more and an encouraging chirrup, andthe shoulders are raised, higher and higher, and still higher yet, as if the bird were trying to reacha

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