26 THE CANARY. 



ing age try to sing more . By this action the sex may 

 be determined. 



FOOD, CARE, DISEASES, AND TREATMENT. The 

 demand of bird owners is for the most practical and 

 condensed article which can be written on the 

 proper care of the canary. I am primarily a business 

 man owning and selling many thousands of birds 

 annually, and to make such a live-stock business 

 profitable I have been compelled to study closely for 

 twenty years everything in bird foods, and whatever 

 pertains to the healthfulness and song-yielding quali- 

 ties of my goods. But more than this : many good 

 birds are owned by those who through want of knowl- 

 edge or through mistaken kindness injure the bird 

 or his singing qualities, and these patients have been 

 brought to me for treatment, and, in some cases, as it 

 seemed to me, for resurrection. My hospital practice 

 covers the widest range of diseases and accident 

 cases, so that some days I regret I am not a specialist. 

 I would confine my study to appendicitis, which birds 

 cannot have. I am popularly supposed to be able 

 to restore the sight ; to recall to its place again the 

 bird's lost "mind " ; to cure the consumptive, and to 

 attach to a suffering victim, so the jointure cannot 

 be discovered, a canary leg which has been rescued 

 from the cat. Intending to enter a profession I went 

 to Yale and in the Academic Department laid the 

 foundation for this most delightful elective, "Birds"; 

 but this study presents some problems apparently not 

 solvable. The worst one is, " How to make your 

 canarv live twenty years and sing every day, regardless 



