40 CANARY-BIRD. 



their boxes at least every other day. The 

 hemp-seed should always be bruised. It 

 is frequently a practice with some per- 

 sons, to feed their Canaries entirely on 

 rape-seed, under the foolish delusion of 

 its producing length of life. This ridicu- 

 lous mode of sustenance invariably causes 

 them to become so thin and weak that 

 the first, and in many cases what would 

 only be a slight illness, easily sweeps 

 them off; and most particularly during the 

 moulting season. Another evil, which it 

 is difficult to guard against, is, when you 

 place your old birds in the cage to breed 

 and give them soft food, they sometimes 

 gorge themselves to such a degree as to 

 swell, and die off very rapidly. This soft 

 food is not entirely necessary for them, 

 nor should it be given to them without 

 anything else. They should always have, 

 when breeding, their seed-box well supplied 

 with canary, hemp and rape, and now and 

 then a little lettuce-seed, which acts upon 

 them medicinally, and purges them from 



