225 



such yonng, strong hens that we shall get our best light 

 mule ; or at anyrate, I have never had a better mule, if 

 as good, from second or third season hens, as I have 

 itoxn first season Ijjrds. 



Never having succeeded in breeding from two 

 British birds until last season, I was, after five or six years 

 of non-success, getting careless if I sat the &^g^, from 

 Britishers or not. But having at last got hybrids from them 

 my interest became much stronger in this section of the 

 fancy, and this season I am again trying a few crosses. 



I put up four Bully hens, two of them with Green- 

 finch cocks, and the others with a Linnet and a Goldfinch 

 respective!}' — all have laid ; one of pair Greenie-Bully are 

 very fond of fresh eggs, and they generall}- sample their 

 own before giving me a chance. The other Greenie and 

 Bully have laid their first clutch of five which are now 

 under a Canary hen. 



The Goldie and Bully are a model pair, both build 

 and sit well, and had I left them their eggs, probabl}' 

 would have reared the young. There liave been five 

 young hatched from the pair but all have gone home. 



The Linnet and Bully are also a most agreeable 

 couple : she laid six eggs first, and three hatched — none 

 of which are alive to-day. Then she laid another six — 

 with three fertile — two of which hatched, and are now 

 three weeks old and doing well. 



A Goldie and Greenfinch are, I think, the silliest 

 pair I ever saw. They build and destroy nest after nest, 

 and a lunatic asylum would be the most suitable place 

 for them — but they are improving, for I have the first 

 egg from the hen to-day. 



Never having had great trouble with non-feeding 

 hens, my idea was to let my muling hens and Bully hens 

 sit as near the same time as possible, and then when I 

 found any of the latter eggs fertile,! could transfer tliem to 

 a Canary hen, or after they had hatched as seemed best. 

 Of course, this seemed workable to me ; and I intended, 

 when the Canary had hatched, to destroy wiiat mules I 



