1856.] Management of Canaries. AS)\ 



Their food is an important point; for, in proportion as it is simple 

 and natural, it will be wholesome ; and on the contrary, the more it 

 is mixed and rare, the more injurious and productive of disease it 

 will be. TTe have found the best is summer rape-seed; we mean that 

 which is sown at the end of spring, which is small and brown, in dis- 

 tinction from the winter rape-seed, which is sown in the autumn, and 

 which is large and black. This seed alone agrees with canaries as 

 well as linnets; but, to give them the pleasure of variety, hemp, ca- 

 nary, or poppy is added to it, especially in the spring when they are 

 intended to breed. Indeed a mixture of rape-seed, oatmeal, and mil- 

 let, or canary-seed, may be given them as a great treat. But what- 

 ever seed they may have, they equally require green food, as 

 chickweed in spring, lettuce and radish leaves in summer, endive, 

 watercress, and slices of sweet apple in winter. As to that whimsical 

 and complicated mixture, prescribed and used by many people, of 

 rape, millet, hemp, canary seed, whole oats, and oatmeal, poppy, let- 

 tuce, plantain, potenilla, and pink seeds, maize, sugar, cake, hard bis- 

 cuit, cracknels, buns, and the like, so far from being wholesome, it 

 injures the birds in every respect. It spoils their taste, weakens their 

 stomach, renders them feeble, sickly, and incapable of bearing moult- 

 ing, under which they most frequently die. It is true, that they 

 may be accustomed to eat every thing which comes to table ; but to 

 teach this habit is also to prepare a poison for them, which, though 

 slow, is not the less sure, and brings them to a premature death; while 

 every day we see ih.e bird f\inciers, who are poor, who hardly know 

 the names of these delicacies, rear, on simple food, a considerable 

 number of the healthiest, cleverest and strongest canaries. "We must, 

 however, be guided in a great measure by tha constitution of the 

 birds. They should be daily supplied with fresh water, as well for 

 drinking as bathing, in which they delight. In the moultinir season, 

 a nail or bit of iron should be put into the water, in order to streno-hen 

 the stomach. Saffron and licorice are in this case more hurtful than 

 useful. Grains of sand with which the bottom of the cage is strewed, 

 afford the birds a help to digestion. 



Sir Humphrey Davy states that the germination of seeds in 

 general is hastened by watering them with a solution of chlorine:— 

 Have any of our readers ever soaked seed in a solution of chlorid 

 of lime to accelerate germination ? 



