86 CANARIES 



results and injures the health of the birds because it 

 deranges the liver, causes digestive and stomach troubles, 

 and in many cases death follows. The one thing to be 

 remembered in connection with colour feeding is this. 

 It is not the quantity that a bird eats that does the trick, 

 but the quantity that is assimilated and taken up into 

 the blood. 



Birds that are given too much colour food come out 

 patchy in colour, and in some cases pale in colour. Why ? 

 Because the liver does not function properly, and the 

 colour is not deposited in the blood. In some cases 

 serious injury is done the birds and they die. 



Value of Green Food during Moult. 



To obtain the very best results from colour feeding 

 the birds must be given a regular supply of green food 

 twice or thrice a day. The reason for this is that when 

 the birds have plenty of green food the liver is not likely 

 to become clogged and the colour food that is given 

 does the work for which it is intended. 



The writer was one of the first to advocate the throwing 

 open of the colour question. We all knew that the men 

 who were feeding on hot Nepaul pepper were so doing, 

 and these men were honest. Birds so fed were shown 

 as K.N. -fed. But the birds shown in the non-K.N.-fed 

 classes were fed in many cases upon a very small quantity 

 of Nepaul pepper, and in others were given the yellow 

 Natal pepper, which undoubtedly injured them quite as 

 much as the red Nepaul pepper, whilst the exhibiting 

 of such birds as non-K.N.-fed was a distinct fraud. Again, 

 the so-called Natural Colour birds were fed upon nastur- 

 tiums, marigolds, clove carnations, mustard seed, beetroot, 

 saffron, madder, cochineal, dragon's blood, infusion of 

 red rose leaves, port wine and other things. These 

 things added considerably to the natural colour of the 

 birds, and those who knew best how to use them had a 

 big pull over other fanciers. Eventually common sense 

 prevailed, the question of colour was thrown open, and 

 fanciers allowed to feed as they hked. The result was 

 seen very quickly, and instead of all birds being fed upon 

 hot K.N. pepper, as many prophesied they would be, the 



