Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1889 — Points About Canaries. [ARTICLE]

Points About Canaries.

“Can’t you tell me of some antidote that I can give my canary?” asked a lady, the other day, of the proprietor of a Ninth street bird-store. “I’m afraid it’s growing blind, though I can’t imagine what is tho cause.” . “How old is your bird?” was the man’s questioning reply. “I’ve had it eighteen years—ever since I was a very little girl," she added, blushing. “Well, then, the cause is easily found, ” came from the smiling man. “Your canary’s blindness is due to old age. It’s on its way to the grave, and nothing can now restore its sight. “When birds live to a good old age, twenty years or twenty-five, or sometimes thirty, their sight often fades, and total eclipse settles down upon them. It is just as impossible to restore a bird’s vision at such a stage as to prevent an old man’s locks from turning gray. “There is, however, a species of blindness that is liable to victimize songsters of all feather and of all ages. This is of comparatively rare occurrence, and it is doubtless sometimes due to a cold which the bird has caught while hanging in a draught. Then cheap bird foods containing opium are very injurious to a canary’s health. “I believe, moreover, that a brass or painted cage is not the best thing in which to house one’s lemon-colored troubadour. The bird’s continual pecking at the wires must result in a considerable amount of paint or lacquer finding its Way into its maw, and this surely cannot be wholesome. Besides, in the case of brass cages, after the lacquer is nibbled away, verdigris accumulates on the wires, and this poison must have a baleful effect on the yellow peckers within, acting as a prolific source of sightlessness.”—Philadelphia Record.