HATCHING AND REARING 



119 



require filling two or three times a day, adopted and continued unchanged. The 

 for Jresh-and-pesh is the rule, and fresh egg-food must not be mixed with bread 

 dainties will often induce a hen to feed on one day and biscuit another, nor should 

 when nothing else will. A supply of green even the kind of biscuit be changed, 

 food is most necessary, such as a small When the youngsters leave the nest 

 bunch of chickweed, spray of watercress, and are getting about the cage, the egg- 

 or leaf of young lettuce ; but whichever food may be prepared in the proportion 

 is commenced with must be continued of bulk for bulk, decreasing the quantity 

 until that brood or broods are reared, of egg somewhat as the birds get older. 

 Fresh at least once a 

 day is imperatively the 

 rule here, for there is 

 nothing so fatal to a 

 young brood, or even to 

 old birds, as stale green 

 stuff. 



Some breeders give 

 green food in unlimited 

 quantities. We have 

 seen handfuls placed in 

 a gallipot in the cage 

 for the bird to feed 

 from, and while such 

 a method may be suc- 

 cessful, it is always 

 fraught with great risk 

 of contamination, and 

 we do not recommend 

 the practice. We believe 

 in giving green food in 

 moderation, and a spray 

 of watercress or a small 

 bunch of chickweed or 

 a young lettuce leaf or 

 two placed between the wires of the cage We have tried all the methods. Our 

 are quite sufficient at a time, and will best results have been obtained from 



THE WAY TO HOLD A SMALL BIRD. 

 To hold a Canary, or other small bird, securely, and at the same time not injure it, the hand should 

 control the whole of the bird's body up to the shoulders, with the wings lying close in their 

 proper position. A suHicient grip should be taken of the bird to hold it firmly, so that it can 

 neither slip backwards nor forwards, but on no account should any pressure be put on the 

 bird's body. Whilst the hand encircles the bird let the pressure be in the tips of the fingers, 

 which should rest on the thick part of the palm towards the wrist. This forms a stay and 

 support to the fingers, and prevents possible injury to the bird by too great pressure should it 

 struggle to escape. 



soon be eaten. 



As regards the composition of the egg- 

 food, there are almost as many recipes as 

 there are breeding-rooms. The 

 staple commodity is hard-boiled 

 egg, with the addition of bread- 



Egg= 



Food. 



either home-made bread — loaves four or 

 five days old — crumbled up fine, or Osborne 

 or thin lunch biscuit powdered fine, and 

 mixed with the egg, while the late 

 Mr. Blakston said he obtained the best 

 results by feeding largely on egg and 

 crumbs, dry, or soaked and squeezed dry ; crushed hemp-seed. The fact is that each 

 milk-biscuit, water-biscuit, sweet-biscuit, method is good, but every breeder naturally, 

 stale sponge-cake, or other kind of farina- and wisely too, recommends the particular 

 ceous food, mixing two parts of hard-boiled mixture he has found produces the best 

 yolk of egg to one part of whichever you results. 



use. After the third day mix two parts So much, however, depends on the birds 



hard-boiled egg yolk and white combined, themselves that it is unfair to condemn 

 with the biscuit or bread ; but it must be one food or praise another unduly, when 

 noted that one combination should be it is quite probable the experience of 



