362 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUliE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 28, I8S9. 



BhowB no ill-temper, she is so thoroaghly tBtne. Another lady 

 I possess who pecks my finger under each circamslances, and 

 eharply too. 



EojojiDK to tlie full my oat-door pets, ponltry and Pipeons, 

 yet I Und full ntten that "there are days in our changeful olimate 

 when no oul-loor pets can be enjoyed, or even enjoy them- 

 selves, when the cock foregoes his wonted strut, and the poor 

 hens stand miseratile, even under a dry shed ; doys when Pigeons 

 prefer nesting for very warmth's sake, or shelter's sake, to facing 

 the cold winds, or the driving wet. On such days, if one is 

 feeble in lieallli, too, I turn to my Canarici", to ray in-door pets, 

 who core not f..r rude Bjreas, or drencliing Pluvins. Then 

 while I write they are near me, and I can watch their habits 

 without loss of lime. Indeed, Cinaries are fit pets for tailors, 

 wi'-i"^^''*''^' ''"'' '''^'■^''y ™'-'o- "'I followers of sedentary traden. 

 While my birds are nesting, building, sitting, and rearing their 

 young, I love to watch them. S) I find do my children, who 

 love to gather green food in their walks for the birds at home. 

 What basketsfull of chioUweed and groundsel have they brought 

 home this year. Then there was the grand collection of plan- 

 tain spikes to be made for winter use. How they were sought 

 and sorted ; how a small forest of them was discovered in one 

 corner of the park, and how the Times newspaper was made 

 into a bag for the reception of the plantains, and how the 

 youngest pleaded in my absence for the piivilcge of laying each 

 day a spike on each cage. To give their children happiness 

 ought to be the endeavour of all parents, and the father that 

 keeps and breeds Cmaricsadds much to his children's pleasure. 



Further, there is a rare beauty in cunary colour ; it i? like no 

 other Colour, so wo call it "canary." Its beauty in the birds 

 IS best seen just before a brood flies. Tou take the cage down, 

 and look into the nest where the birds sit, and clean, and clear, 

 and bright is their colour. S) pure and new do the little 

 fellows look, they are feathered, but too weak as yet to venture 

 out of their nest. Few young birds are pretty, I think no 

 IiiOglish birds are while in the nest, but the Cinary colour effects 

 a triumph, and young nestliog Canaries are very pretty. When 

 they leave the nest by day I notice they, like other babies, 

 must have their day sleep, sometimes on a perch, at others in 

 the nest. But what a change do a few days make. At the 

 month's end I take them from the old ones, and give for three 

 days soft meat, egg, hempseed, and bread, as well as seed, but 

 before the three days are well over, the manly little chaps 

 despise the baby puddiags, the nursery food, and there they are 

 eating away at the seed drawer. A little older and I allow them 

 a bath. Just li<o bathing school boys they do not know when 

 to have done, when to come out of the water. Your old 

 Canary takes his hath, has a good clean, and has finished, but 

 the juveniles go in and in and in again. My plan in my room 

 as to the bath, is this— I place a shallow dish, the bottom part 

 of one of those receptacles for eggs one buys at a crockerv shop, 

 consisting of two parts, the upper an earthen hen of doubtful 

 breed, represented sitting, and a nest basket under her. This 

 earthen basket— a far better tbiug than the deep bought baths— 

 I put on a wooden chair in the centre of my room, if possible in 

 the sun. I open the cages and down the birds come, and verily 

 it is a pretty sight to see five at once bathing, others by the 

 side, or a scrimmage as to who shall got ia first, while o'tiiers 

 standdripping wet on the chair back ; while upon all the anu- 

 light is falling, lighting up the pretty canary colour. Mmy a 

 half hour's pie tHure do I have sitting in my bird room, half 

 hour's sittings after meals which aid digestion. 



I find that in the moulting the birds not unfrequently have 

 a kind of asthma or huskiness, but that I can easily stop by 

 adopting the fjllov^ing plan. I smear a small pebble the size 

 of a pea with Slockh'jlm tar, and drop the pebble into the bird's 

 drinking glass. This I find is better than putting a few dr.^ps 

 of the tar in the wafer. I renew this daily, but usually two 

 days effecit a cure. I do not approve of much green food, except 

 in warm weather and when the birds have young ones. I do 

 approve, on the other hand, of braised hempseed with the 

 chopped egg, for I have not lost one bird this year, and I know 

 young things, children included, need nourishing food. In 

 saying this I am telling the decided opinion of a very su'-cessful 

 lady fancier in my own neighbourhood, who has bred B .Igians 

 for years. My birds are healthy, but then I keep them scru- 

 pulously clean, cleaning them every day. If a bird is shown 

 to me ill I smell the drinking fountain, and — oh, faugh ! It is 

 the same with Pigeons ; the same cause, the cause of fever in 

 mankind — dirt in some form or other. In going among humble 

 fanciers all this summer, and hearing their monrnfnl stories 

 of " No luck this year, sir," I asked, " Did you scald the soft- 



meat pans every morning ?" " Well, Kir, I can't nay I did." 

 " Did you give clean water daily ?" "Well, no." This is the 

 same oause in Pigeons, though the higher bred the more deli- 

 cate — dirt. 



I like mnoh my Canary pels. At present they are all Nor- 

 wich, Clear, or Marked, or Crested. The last when angry look 

 like Scotch shepherds in a gale of wind »ilh their flat bonnets 

 on their heads. I admire the ceaseless activity and curiosity 

 of Canaries, how they will peck at everything new, be it a bit 

 of string or even the head of a nail — so carious, so prying, bo 

 active in body and briin are my little feathered friends. Ca- 

 naries, like all cago birds, are great sources of comfort and 

 amusement to invalids. Doubtless my readers know what a 

 small world confirmed invalids live in. Their room is all, and 

 if in it they have fi jwers and pets they get to love them very 

 greatly. I know how a delicate child, forbidden to join in 

 out-door exercise save in fine weather, will delight in mixing 

 and getting anything, bath, water, *c., for the birds, and will 

 sit and watch them by the hour. I do not wonder how general 

 is the love of Canaries, how they are found in front streets and 

 back streets, how they are to bo seen in the wide light halls of 

 pretty modern villas, their cages among pots of Maiden-hair 

 Ferns and bright Geraniums. Then nnder how great diffionl- 

 ties they are bred, and bred by hundreds (.\h I Englishmen, 

 aud Englishwomen, bless them ! like to triumph over diflSoul- 

 tie.s), as witness in Sunderland's smoky atmosphere — Sunder- 

 land which has its large and beautiful show in spile, nay, 

 perhaps partly because, of the dinifultios to be surmounted. 



And now to bring this rambling Canary paper to a close, 

 I end it with a " Thauk you, Mr. Blakston, for reviving my 

 Canary love ; for making my little children thoughtful of little 

 birds' wants, and watchful of their ways; for helping me to 

 educate them in kindness — yes, thank, thank you, Mr. Blak- 

 ston ; and like Oliver Twist, I ask for more — for papers on 

 ea-ih variety, for points to judge them by," ic. — \\'iLTsniBE 



PiECTOR. 



DE:U) BEES IN CELLS-QUEENS OF SECOND 

 SWARM BREEDING. 



I HAvr. just taken np a second swar.-n ; the hive is about 

 half filled with combs, aud there is very little honey but a good 

 deal of brood. The bees are quite perfect ; some of them are 

 ready to creep out of the com'bs. I want to keep the hive to 

 hive a new swarm in next year. Will the new swarm clean the 

 dead bees out, or will the latter do any harm ? It is a common 

 hive. If a second swarm of Li,;uriau bees were sent away on 

 the day it issued, would there be a sufficient number ol drones 

 with it to insure the qieen finding a mate, the parent stock 

 having a good number of drones ? — H. R. 



[The new swarm will remove the dead brood, and we believe 

 sustain no injury from its presence. Tije hive should, however,, 

 be carefully put away in a dry place until wanted for use. II 

 the second swarm from a stock of Italians can be placed at a 

 sufliiient distancj from any common bees, it is most probable 

 that snflijient drones would accompany it to insure the purity 

 of the young queen's progeny.] 



SPURIOUS HONEY, AND FRAUDULENT BEE- 

 KEEPERS. 



It is with regret that I feel bound to reply to the vagne 

 and contradictory etatements made by Mr. A. Pettigrew, in 

 your issue of the lllh instant. I leave the major part of his 

 article to the Ayrshire bee-keepprs, who, I know, are very well 

 able to defend themselves, but I will notice the salient points, 

 giving some explanations as I go along ; and may I add that 

 Mr. Pettigrew must himself advance considerably ere he 

 assumes to give information to others on the subject of bees ? 

 The produce of those who work on the Stewarton system is 

 greatly superior to his currant-bun-like combs, and much has 

 been said against the Stewarton hive by bee-keepers who are 

 not themselves able to take off boxes of fine honeycomb. 



Mr. Pettigrew says — " Some time ago a correspondent asserted 

 in your columns that the Stewarton hive produced the finest 

 honey in the world, an assertion rather too extravagant for 

 your intelligent readers." Now, it seems to me that there is 

 something rather obscure in the last two words of the sentence. 

 As a proof of t|je repute of the Stewarton hive, I may state that 

 it has come under my direct observation (not to speak of, 

 I perhaps, six times as many that I know nothing of;, that there 



