296 THE CANARY. 



their leisure hours. We have it on the authority of BoLTOir, 

 that four Tyrolese generally bring over about sixteen hundred 

 Canaries annually, which cost them about twenty pounds, and 

 for vrhich they get on an average five shillings each. " Most of 

 these birds," he adds, " have been educated under parents, the 

 progenitors of which were instructed by a Nightingale ; they are 

 much valued for their song." With' the birds brought up in this 

 country, the song generally partakes of a mingled character, those 

 of the Nightingale and Titlark, or Linnet, being the most closely 

 followed. 



GILBERT WHITE asks : " Might not Canary Birds be natura- 

 lized to this climate, provided their eggs were put, in the spring, 

 into the nests of some of their congeners, as Goldfinches, Green- 

 finches, &c. P" 



Had the naturalist of Selborne been living at this time, he 

 need not have queried the practicability of this. WILLIAM 

 WOLLASTON, Esq. of Welling, in Kent, an amateur breeder of 

 Canaries, has had those birds building their nests, and rearing 

 their young, in his shrubberies for some years past.* It is true, a 

 home is provided for them to retire into in the winter season, so 

 that they can scarcely yet be considered as thoroughly acclima- 

 tized ; they are also furnished with appropriate food ; but there 

 seems little reason to doubt that eventually the Canary may be- 

 come, in some of our most sheltered and southerly counties, a 

 wild bird of the copse and woodland. The experiment of inducing 

 these birds to nest and breed in the open, air has also been suc- 

 cessfully tried in the grounds of the Queen s marine villa, Osborne 

 House, in the Isle of Wight. 



The following observations on the Diseases of the Canary, by 

 an English dealer in Song Birds,f may well be added to what 

 BECHSTEIN has written upon this subject, as they furnish direc- 

 tions for treatment in some cases of sickness of which that 

 author makes no reference : 



In treating of the disorders of Canary Birds, Mr. NASH says 

 " I shall first consider those to which the hen is subject, whilst in 

 the breeding cage. 



" When the hen has built her nest, she is often observed to 

 appear thick and heavy, in which case she is breeding her egg, 

 and ought to have a little bread and milk, and a few oatmeal 

 groats : I have always found that this has afforded great relief. 

 The groats may be given every day whilst she is laying, as it keeps 



* For an interesting account of a visit to Welling, see Kidd's Journal, 

 vol. i., in which will also be found articles by the Editor on Canaries and 

 other Birds of Song ; evidently the result of long experience and close ob- 

 servation, 

 f Mr. NASH, Great Windmill Street, London. 



