TREATMENT OF CANARY BIRDS. 149 



been very successful in breeding them. It may 

 be sufficient to say, that from a pair of birds I 

 had twenty-one young ones, in one season, all 

 alive and well. If you wish your birds to build 

 their own nests, in place of the baskets, put up 

 boxes four inches square, and three inches deep, 

 made of thin wood;* then furnish your birds 

 with some fine, dry grass ; such as grows about 

 the roots of bushes and fences is good, and some 

 cotton wick cut in short pieces ; also, some deer, 

 or cow's hair ; the hair should be washed clean, 

 then put into a warm oven, or dried before the 

 fire. Strew those materials over the bottom of 

 the cage, or put them separately, in pieces of net, 

 and hang them in the corners of the cage, and 

 they will pull them out as they want them. It 

 is better not to put but one box in at first, as they 

 may amuse themselves by carrying the materials 

 from one to another, and thereby lose time. Be- 

 fore you put in the box, take some of the grass, 

 and fashion the frame of a nest, as neat as you 

 can, (this will save time, and the labor of the 

 birds,) and they will finish it to suit themselves, 



* Camphor wood, or red cedar, is the best, if it can be procured, 

 (as the mites will not breed in it,) if not, common cedar ; nail them 

 close together, in the joints, and give them a good coat of copal var- 

 nish, and hang them in the sun to dry. 



