124 



CANARIES, HYBRIDS, AND BRITISH BIRDS 



forget all his duty to the sprawliiit; youiisi- 

 stcr on the floor ol' tlie ciiue. I'eilinps it 

 re])resents to him in lh;\t po- 

 sition sonicthiny to l>l:i>' 



Mutilations 

 by Cocks. 



with, or soint'thiiiLj to eat. 

 Tor he will frequently bite olf the extrem- 

 ities — the toes, tijis of the winj>s. and the 

 little beak. Some faneiers maintain that 

 these mutilations tai<e piaee tlu'ounh the 

 coclc bird trying to earry the young bird 

 back to the nest : but if this is the case. 

 how is it that the hen never does this kind 

 of thing ? A young bird will never be 

 found mutilated on the bottom of the cage 

 where a hen is rearing a brood by herself, 

 and one would natiu'ally tliink her instinct 

 to get the youngster back to the nest 

 would be C|uite as strong as that of the 

 cock. He tlic cause what it may. it is 

 only too true that not one yoimg bird in 

 twenty escapes mutilation if the cock is 

 in the cage, unless it is discovered almost 

 as soon as it iuis been ])ulicd out of the 

 nest. ^Ve liavc even known very rare 

 cases where this mutilation by the cock 

 has occurred in the nest. 



We have done our best to suggest the 

 various means to be eni]:)]oyed to keep 

 tilings in a healthy state 

 and j)revcnt misha|)s, but 

 there is a ]ioint beyond 

 wliicli we cannot go, even with the exercise 

 of all the skill we can command, and a not 

 very cxtendeil experience will soon indicate 

 that line to the bi-ecdcr. It then becomes 

 a mercy to destroy such young ones as we 

 know we cannot possibly save. It seems 

 cruel to kill a little, blind, helpless lledgling 

 — we say ■" blind," bccausi- a young bii'd's 

 eyes do not open unt il it is scncu days old 

 but it is more cimicI to allow it to linger on in 

 weakness, till the end wf can loresec t-omes. 

 It destroys the pleasure we dei'ivc IVom 

 keei)ing animals to rear sickly. pun\ 

 specimens. ()ur utinost energies should 

 always be given towai'ds alle\iating sick- 

 ness when it overtakes anything in our 

 charge, but tlic same wisdom which dictates 

 the policy o! destroying the weakly young 

 of rabbits, dogs, or any othci' animal we 

 desire to rear in the bcautx ol' its strength 



Treatment of 

 the Unfit. 



will tell us when it will be a kindness to 

 ]Mit a whole nest out ol' the way if we 

 can see no reasonable chance of rearing it. 

 It is one o\' the disagreeablenesses of the 

 position, but we must accept it, and by 

 pronijit action make it as little painful as 

 ])ossil)le. 



AMiat is the sum of all that we ha\e 

 ad\aneed ? Is it that the bird-room, 



instead of being the pleas- 

 The Brighter ^ , described, is 



Side. ' 



nothing better than a 



hospital, and the occupation of Canary 

 breeding one in which half the pleasure is 

 lost in troidjie and vexation ? Not a bit 

 of it. Disappointment lurks at the Ixittom 

 of our best jileasures. and vanity and 

 vexati(jn of spirit have ever been found 

 to wait t)n many legitimate enterprises. 

 Dillieulty and opposition act as a stinndus 

 to endca.voiu'. and it is best to know we 

 have these things to grajjjile with. The 

 Canary-room is a little world of itself, and 

 we can no more exjiect to find it free from 

 cares and ills than the great outside world, 

 in which we have to take things as we 

 find them, and do our best to make as 

 much sunshine as possible. Des])ite all the 

 misadventures to which we have cidled 

 attention, it is just as likel_\- the breeder 

 may go through a season without troubles 

 as with them, and wc now i-ctui'n to our 

 nests as though there were no such things 

 as failures in eggs, or failures in hens, or 

 failures in anything. Xotliing seems to 

 come amiss to our birds : they are all 

 feeding well, and sc\fi'al nests contain four 

 and li\c young oni's which ai'c i'a|)idly 

 feathering. 



.\t this period of their growth it will be 



of ad\antage to notice the ])rincipal ]ior- 



t ions of t he bod\' on \\ liich 



How the tin. i,.:iil,(.,.s on,w. It docs 



Feathers , ,■ ii i i • i 



^ not lollow. heeause a 1)U'(1 



is co\-ci-cd with feathers, that 

 the covering spiouts from e\ery part of 

 the surface of the l)ody, and suc-h will be 

 seen not io be the case by reference to the 

 illusti-ation on ))age V2(j of a young bird 

 just develo])ing its feathers. This is know- 

 ledge tt) be turned to aceoimt when wc 



