RBC I In the late 1890s, when coal mines began operating in Western mountain communities, miners took caged canaries underground to alert them to danger. If potentially deadly gases, such as carbon monoxide and methane, were to leak out of the coal seams, the sight of a fragile yellow bird in distress warned the miners to flee
Although birds haven’t been used in this way since the 20th century, the phrase “canary in a coal…