164 THE CANARY. 



the good ones will be already filled with- blood-vessels, while the bad will 

 continue clear, or even be already addled : these must be thrown away. 

 It is rare for the male to sit in his turn during some hours of the day, the 

 female seldom allowing it, for as soon as she has eaten she flies back to the 

 nest. If the male gives up his place readily, so much the better; if not, 

 she drive? him away by force and by pecking him. She appears to know 

 his want of skill in this employment. 



The near discharge of a gun, a door slammed with violence, and other 

 similar noises, will often kill the young in the shell ; but their death hap- 

 pens generally through the fault of a bad sitter. 



As soon as the young are hatched, a small jar is placed beside the usual 

 feeding trough, which contains a quarter of a hard egg minced very fine, 

 white and yellow together, with a bit of white bread steeped in water, and 

 afterwards well pressed ; another jar should contain rape seed which has 

 been boiled, and then washed in fresh water, to remove all its acrimony. 

 Some persons, instead of white bread, use biscuit, but this is unnecessary ; 

 what, on the contrary, is very essential, is to take care that this food does 

 not turn sour, for it would then infallibly destroy the young nurslings. 

 This food I find by experience to be the best. 



Now is the time when the male assumes his important duties of nursing- 

 father. These he fulfils indeed almost alone, in order to give his mate 

 time to rest before a new sitting. When it is necessary to bring up the 

 young by hand, a bit of white bread, or some biscuit, should be pounded 

 very fine, and this powder should be mixed with well-bruised rape-seed. 

 This composition serves, with a little yolk of egg and water, to make a 

 paste, which is given to the young birds on a quill cut like a spoon ; each 

 nursling requires for a meal four beakfuls, well piled upon the quill, and 

 these meals must not be fewer than ten or twelve a day. 



The young should remain warmly covered by the mother as long as 

 they continue unfledged * ; that is to say, generally for twelve days : on the 

 thirteenth day they begin to eat alone. In four weeks they may be placed 

 in other cages of a sufficient size; but they must still for some weeks be 

 fed with the above-mentioned paste, conjointly with the food of full-grown 

 birds ; for the sudden privation of this nourishment often occasions death, 

 especially when moulting. 



Experience proves that generally those canaries which are hatched in a 

 large garden aviary, where they enjoy fresh air, and considerable space for 

 the exercise of their wings, are more vigorous, more healthy, and more 

 robust than those which are bred in rooms, and it is easy to understand the 

 reason. 



It sometimes happens in very dry seasons that the feathers of the young birds 

 cannot, develop naturally ; a bath of tepid water employed on such an occasion by 

 Madame * * * was so successful that I cannot do better than recommend it. The 

 same lady succeeded equally well in similar circumstances in hatching late eggs ; 

 she plunged them for some minutes in water heated to the degree of incubation, 

 and immediately replaced them under the mother ; in a short time she enjoyed the 

 pleasure of seeing the little ones make their appearance. This interesting expe- 

 riment may be applied to all sorts of birds, and may be particularly useful in regard 

 to those of the poultry yard TRANSLATOR. 



