CANARY BIRDS. 49 



pletely worry the poor hen, that she can sit 

 no longer on her eggs. 



On going into my breeding-room, I have 

 found, in one or two instances, hens dead on 

 their eggs; the poor things were mere 

 skeletons. On examination, I found them 

 covered with small insects, and the nests 

 and nest bags swarming with the same sort 

 of troublesome vermin, which must have 

 sucked them to death; the poor old hens 

 were sitting on their eggs in their usual 

 position, suffering themselves to be worried 

 to death rather than quit their charge. We 

 do not, however, generally find them in- 

 clined to put up with such repeated tor- 

 ments; and they are therefore necessitated 

 to forsake their eggs or young. 



The birds, sometimes, after breeding pro- 

 perly, will, without any apparent cause, 

 coolly fill up the nest, generally with some 

 white stuff, and quietly forsake it. This is 

 usually when they have been disturbed by 

 strangers, or when the eggs are addled. 



