76 CANARIES 



process with feeling akin to wonder and awe. But because 

 we grow up from childhood with our eye and mind trained 

 to the knowledge we fail to stop and think of this 

 wonderful ordinance and all it is and means. 



From Death Comes Life. 



From death comes hfe in many spheres of life. It is 

 so in the moulting of our canaries. The old is replaced 

 by the new, and from the decay of life new life springs. 

 The moult commences with the desiccation of the old 

 feathers. The quills become dry and sapless, they lose 

 their strength and firmness, the web loses its lustre and 

 depth of colour, it becomes harsh and brittle, and ere 

 the feather is shed it presents a very soiled and broken 

 appearance, the quills shrink within their sockets, the 

 surrounding skin becomes dry and shrivelled, and the 

 feathers, like the leaves on the trees, droop and fall 

 away. The falling away of the old feather is assisted by 

 the new growth which is following hard on its heels, 

 and the new feather which is bursting up in the socket 

 helps in the displacement of the old in similar manner as 

 does a child's second teeth assist in the expulsion of its 

 predecessors. 



It must be obvious to every breeder of canaries, be 

 his experience great or small, that the season of the 

 moult must of necessity be a time of great strain on the 

 constitution of the birds. Not only have they to keep 

 up the ordinary functioning of their bodies, but they have 

 also at the same time to provide from the source of the 

 same forces the material or food to grow another crop 

 of feathers. This must, naturally, have a most exhausting 

 and enervating effect upon the internal economy of birds 

 going through the process. When we think of all that it 

 means need we wonder that our fathers styled it the 

 " moulting sickness " ? Knowing how great the strain 

 must be it becomes our duty to see that our pets go 

 through the moult assisted by everything that our 

 thought and care is capable of devising and carrying out. 



Warmth Essential to a Successful Moult. 



In the accomplishment of a quick, healthy and success- 

 ful moult warmth is a most desirable and necessary 



