54 OUR HOME PETS 



all thrushes ; the orioles, bluebirds, tanagers, 

 flickers, jays, and skylarks. 



The canary, as is familiar to every one, and 

 most of the seed-eaters as well, eat principally 

 canary-seed with a little rape, and they should 

 have hemp-seed for a dainty. Perhaps not 

 every one knows that there is a great differ- 

 ence in canary-seed, and a bird will often refuse 

 and scatter poor seed far and wide, while he 

 will eagerly devour a better quality. The seed 

 should be examined, and none used except 

 that which is plump and large and clean. 

 Seed should also be bought each kind by it- 

 self, and mixed at one's own discretion. It is 

 the presence of a little hemp in the mixture 

 of the bird stores that makes the bird throw 

 seed all over the room. He is in search of 

 what he likes best, the hemp, and so long as 

 one of the large round tidbits is to be found 

 in the dish, he will not touch the less accept- 

 able canary. 



Why not feed him entirely, then, on what 

 he likes best ? Because it is too rich. Would 

 you feed your child exclusively on fruit cake 

 or mince-pie because he will choose that from 

 the dinner-table and refuse plainer food ? The 



