84 CANARIES 



rays may be neutralised in great measure if the window 

 of the bird-room is coloured with red distemper, or if a 

 red cloth instead of white is used to hang before the cages. 



Colour-Feeding in Bygone Days. 



In the days of long ago one could not write about 

 colour feeding without saying a lot about the ingredients 

 needed to be used. Nowadays we have colour feed 

 supplied by merchants in a state ready to be used, but 

 when I was exhibiting the only thing that we knew for a 

 certainty was the hot cayenne pepper which was used, I 

 am old enough to remember the introduction of K.N. -fed 

 aud Non-K.N.-fed, and Natural Colour classes, and the 

 only honest birds were those which were shown in the 

 K.N. -fed classes. Fanciers experimented with all kinds 

 of colouring agents to obtain colour to enable them to 

 win in the Non-K.N.-fed and Natural Colour classes. 



NoN-K.N.-FED Classes. 



For a long time the chief ingredient used to colour-feed 

 birds for the Non-K.N.-fed classes was the yellow Natal 

 pepper, aud something of a sensation was produced when 

 thirty-five years ago the writer gave away the secret. 

 It is just about that number of years ago that I published 

 three recipes for colour-feeding birds for the Non-K.N.-fed 

 classes aud these were the first composite colour-feeding 

 recipes ever given to the canary fancy. Up till the time 

 when I published those recipes Colour Foods were not 

 advertised, but within a few weeks the cage bird papers of 

 the time were flooded with advertisements of colour 

 foods. From these came great and increasing demand, 

 and in due course was evolved a substance known as 

 " cool " or " tasteless " pepper, aud which in later years 

 has been known as " Red Feed." 



Nothing Injurious in Present-Day Feed. 



There is nothing injurious to birds in the " Red Feed," 

 as now sold, and if properly used it gives the birds a 

 beautiful rich colour without in any way affecting their 

 health. But when used to excess it does not give the best 



