THE CANARY. 281 



autumn. Like Linnets, they thrive on this food alone ; but 

 it is occasionally advisable, especially in spring, when they 

 are desired to breed, to mix with it a little crushed hemp, 

 canary, and poppy seed. Better still, perhaps, is a mixture of 

 summer rape seed, oats, or oatmeal, and a little millet or 

 canary seed. This is especially adapted for the females, though 

 in winter they are also content with bread, or barley-meal, 

 soaked in milk, if they receive a fresh supply every day. In 

 summer, both sexes ought to be supplied with green food 

 cabbage or lettuce leaves, turnip-tops, groundsel, watercress 

 (if well washed) ; and in winter, with pieces of sweet apple. 

 As for the mixture of rape seed, millet, hemp seed, canary seed, 

 oats, oatmeal, poppy seed, lettuce seed, linseed, plaintain seed, 

 tansy seed, pink seed, sugar, cakes, biscuits, buns, and the like, 

 which some people give to their birds, it is injurious, in every re- 

 spect. It makes them dainty, weak, disinclined to breed, sickly, 

 and generally kills them at an early age. It is easy enough 

 to accustom these, and other birds, to eat and enjoy whatever 

 comes to table ; but, in so doing, we only lay the foundation 

 for future disease, and speedy death. While, on the contrary, 

 poor people, who are not acquainted even with the names of 

 many of these delicacies, succeed in rearing and preserving 

 healthy, handsome, and lively birds. 



Canaries should be supplied daily with clean water, for 

 drinking and bathing ; and they swallow the larger grains of the 

 sand with which their cage is strewed, as an aid to the process 

 of digestion. These remarks, however, must throughout be 

 understood to apply only to full grown birds, as the young re- 

 quire a very different treatment. 



Breeding. The propagation of these birds is attended with 

 many difficulties, which have been rather increased than 

 diminished by the innumerable expedients invented to obviate 

 them. For pairing, young males, of from two to five years 

 old, are usually selected ; and experience shows, that if such 

 breed with females older than themselves, the majority of the 

 brood will consist of males. Old birds may be recognised by 

 the projecting blackish scales on the legs, and by their long 

 strong claws. Good breeding birds are rare and costly. Some 

 males are melancholy and phlegmatic, and are so silent as not 

 to attract the attention of their mates ; some are so passionate, 

 as to be always fighting with the females, and even to kill the 



