THE COVERINGS OF YOUNG BIRDS 27 



enter it through a hole cut for the purpose. To admit light to the 

 nesting cage three slits must be cut in the brown paper so. that a 

 flap may be raised or lowered at will. Within, a rough nest can be 

 fashioned with hay, and a supply of hair and moss and soft feathers 

 given to the birds so that they may complete the structure. With 

 such a nest as this it is possible to rear as many as six young birds 

 at a time. In some books it is recommended that the yolk of the 

 hard-boiled eggs, which is given to canaries in the breeding season 

 to supply them with animal food for themselves and more par- 

 ticularly for their young, should be chopped up and mixed with 

 crumbled biscuits. To do this is troublesome, and it would appear 

 to defeat the end in view ; instead, the hard-boiled eggs should be 

 cut in two and a half wedged into a little pan to which the birds 

 have access. They then may help themselves to the yolk and, if 

 they wish, to some of the white also. If careful observations are 

 to be made upon nestling canaries, it may be advisable to build a 

 special nest cage of which the sides or roof can be temporarily re- 

 moved and the contents examined. 



To show the other type of young birds, chickens may be chosen 

 (see figure 161) or pheasants' eggs placed under an ordinary hen. 

 It is well worth while to see the accurate way in which the young 

 pheasant chick breaks through the shell by making a circle of pecks. 

 The result is that part of the shell falls away like the lid from a 

 box. Such birds have a scale on the beak which helps in the 

 process. Are all birds likewise endowed ? 



