CANARY. 81 
mixed with a few dry grass-stems. The eggs are four or five in number, 
bluish green in ground-colour, spotted and speckled with reddish brown ; 
they measure about ‘8 inch in length, and about °55 inch in breadth. 
According to Dr. Bolle the Canary will rear as many as four broods in the 
season, but sometimes only three. The female alone performs the duties 
of incubation, and the male may often be seen perched on a bush or tree 
near at hand warbling forth his song. 
The song of the Canary is too well known to need description; but it 
seems that domestication has increased the beauty of its notes, for it is 
said that birds in confinement possess a better song than those in a wild 
state. After the breeding-season the birds unite into flocks, and search for 
food in company. When alarmed they fly off in a straggling train like 
Linnets, continually calling to each other as they go. Their flight is very 
similar to that of the Linnet, and is usually only prolonged from tree to 
tree ; they are, however, capable of taking long flights; and Mr. Godman 
remarks that on the island of Fayal the birds congregate towards evening 
near a small hill, and cross ina body to the island of Pico. In their 
habits at nightfall they very closely resemble Bramblings, and at the 
selected roosting-place are very noisy. 
The food of the Canary consists of seeds of various kinds, and fruits, 
especially figs, of which it is said to be very fond. There can be little 
doubt that it also feeds on insects, as all other Finches doubtless do more 
or less. 
From the beginning of the sixteenth century the Canary has been a 
highly-prized cage-bird, and is still as popular as ever. In Germany it 
is in even higher repute than in this country ; it is the favourite cage-bird ; 
and great numbers are bred there every year, as well as in England. 
Canary-breeding has almost reached the dignity of a science; its devotees 
have their societies and their shows, and the perfection of breeding and 
the varieties obtained by judicious intercrossing are most remarkable. 
Many wild birds are still caught on their rocky isolated retreats, and 
scarcely a person visits the islands without bringing away with him a 
bird or two under the delusion that they are real souvenirs of the place. 
But by far the greater number brought from the islands yearly are not 
native: the demand far exceeds the supply; and tame-bred birds are 
actually imported from England and Germany and sold there as natives. 
Wild birds, it is said, do not bear confinement well, and do not breed 
so freely as those bred in cages. In confinement the female sometimes 
sings as sweetly as the male. 
The wild Canary is quite a different-looking bird from that usually seen 
in cages. It has the crown yellowish green, narrowly streaked with 
blackish brown ; the feathers of the back and the upper tail-coverts are 
blackish brown, broadly margined with grey, and marked with olive-green ; 
VOL. II. G 
