270 C^NAItJEX JA7> ('Mi 



careful attention during the moulting-season. Each bird should be fed stronger than 

 usual ; as the shedding of feathers is an exhausting process, and attended with. more 

 or less debility. Raw lean beef scraped fine, and an extra supply of ants' eggs 

 and meal-worms, will all be helps to a quick moult that will leave the bird in good 

 order. 



Young Canaries may now be taught their songs. Soon after they are able to 

 feed themselves they begin to twitter; and, even at this early period, Bechstein 

 says, the male may be distinguished from the female by the more connected charac- 

 ter of his song. Then is the time to begin the course of musical instruction : the 

 birds to be taught should be put into separate cages of small size, which should at 

 lirst be covered with a linen cloth, and afterwards with some thicker substance, so 

 as nearly to exclude the light ; place them in a room by themselves, as remote as 

 possible from all discordant and distracting sounds ; let a short air be whistled or 

 played to them on a flute, flageolet, or bird-organ, five or six times a day, and 

 repeated on each occasion about that number of times. Especially in the morning 

 and evening, and at feeding-time, should these lessons be given : from two to six 

 months is the time required by the birds to learn the tune perfectly. The time 

 required varies ; some having better memories, and some being more docile and 

 attentive than others. Should you wish your bird to acquire the strain of any other 

 feathered performers, you must hang him in the room with them, and let him hear 

 as little else as may be. A well-instructed Canary, Virginian Nightingale, Gold- 

 finch, Sky or Wood Lark, may be the music-master. St. Andreasberg Canaries 

 are, most frequently, taught to imitate the warbling of the Nightingale ; and m 

 Thuringia, as Bechstein tells us, " the preference is generally given to those birds 

 as teachers, which, instead of a succession of noisy bursts, know how, with a 

 silvery, sonorous voice, to descend regularly through all the notes of the octave, 

 introducing, from time to time, a sound like a trumpet." 



Bird-organs are used with great success ; a young Mocking-bird or Canary 

 quickly catching an air, and giving it just as expressed by the instrument. These 

 organs are played by turning a crank, and usually have six or eight songs. The 

 list comprises such pieces as "God save the Queen," "Yankee Doodle," "Up in 

 a Balloon," "The Campbells are coming," and waltzes, airs from operas, etc. 

 The price of an organ is ten dollars. We properly box them, and deliver to any 

 express company on receipt of the above amount. Young birds may also be taught 

 to sing and whistle by receiving the daily lessons from the lips of any person who 

 is a good whistler. During most of the time when the instructor is not whistling, 

 his pupil should be kept covered in a quiet place, so his voice will be fresh and 

 sweet, and not worn out by over-use. 



JULY AUGUST. 



During the moultiug-season, now close at hand, there are opportunities to so 

 feed a bird as to entirely change the color of his plumage when he again gets into 

 full feather. When feeding for color, the bird should be kept in an even temperature, 

 warm enough so that he will moult quickly, seventy degrees being about right. The 

 proper coloring-food is put up in tin cans, each can containing sufficient to color 



