78 The Canary Book. 



ground German rape-seed may be added ; this should be ground 

 in a fine-set coffee-mill, and passed through a hair sieve before 

 using. In all cases the food should be given warm. At the 

 age of ten days you may give a little seed in addition to the 

 food recommended. When the birds reach the age of twenty, 

 three or twenty-four days they should be able to feed them- 

 selves, and you may then substitute the ordinary egg food, 

 giving in addition a few lettuce-leaves, or a piece of ripe 

 chickweed or groundsel. When five weeks old they will be 

 able to crack seed, a supply of which should be provided for 

 their use. 



FOSTER-MOTHERS. Fanciers who keep a large number of 

 high-class birds will find it necessary to keep a few common 

 canary hens as nurses. Endeavour to get them to begin to 

 breed at or near the same time as the hens whose eggs or 

 young ones it may be desirable for them to have ; so that, in 

 the event of a high-class hen failing to feed her own progeny 

 sufficiently, they can be transferred to one of these nurses. 

 Where there are only one or two young ones they can some- 

 times be given to other known good mothers who happen to 

 have offspring about the same time. 



In cases of emergency, and when highly bred, I have 

 given newly-hatched young to other hens which have only 

 been set from two to five days well tried feeders and they 

 have in all cases reared them. In one instance, where a 

 hen had only sat two days, I removed her eggs and gave her 

 a nest of birds a few days old to rear; at first she was 

 greatly puzzled and mystified, and appeared in great doubt 

 how to act; she remained off the nest for several minutes, 

 going occasionally to inspect the contents, and evidently 

 trying to account for the sudden and unexpected transfor- 

 mation, but after the lapse of nearly a-quarter-of-an-hour 

 she settled down upon them quietly and reared them satis- 

 factorily. 



DIFFERENCE IN AGES. There ought never to be more than 

 two or three days' difference in their ages, or the stronger 



