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CHAPTER VII. 



PAIRING AND SITTING. 



Our cages furnished with a good covering of sand mixed witli a little lime-rubbish, and our seed 

 and water vessels filled, they are ready for the reception of the stock. Of the different Varieties 

 and the method of breeding them with a view to producing each in perfection, we shall treat in 

 extenso by-and-by. We purpose devoting this and the succeeding chapters to the subject of 

 General Management and the discussion of the best means to employ in Breeding, Rearing, 

 Feeding, Moulting, and preparing for Exhibition. 



The first question that suggests itself is as to the selection of breeding-stock. We do not mean 

 as regards quality, or the best variety for a beginner to make a start with. One kind is no more 

 difficult to manage than another, and good birds eat no more seed than bad ones. It is only too 

 easy, even when at the top of the ladder, to make a false step and slide down to the bottom ; but 

 next to impossible to begin at the bottom and reach the top if the bars be rotten ; and we therefore 

 urge ^t. fancier to buy the very best his means will permit of his doing. The only question we 

 shall enter into in this place, in speaking of the selection of stock, is as regards age, and we shall 

 dismiss it summarily by saying it is perfectly immaterial. Secure good birds, but never mind the 

 age if they are only healthy. A Canary at twelve months old, notwithstanding it still carries a 

 portion of its nest-feathers, viz., wings and tail, may still be said to be matured, and displays all 

 its natural instincts. The cock birds look out eagerly for mates, and the hens are equally anxious 

 for the duties of maternity, and, if left to themselves, would lay nests of unfertile eggs and sit on 

 them till hope died out with declining health and strength. We have never found that age added 

 one iota to their experience, or that youth was connected with any lack of knowledge. The 

 exercise of maternal duties is the outcome of natural instincts, native and deep-rooted, and as 

 strongly developed and true in their action when the first nestling emerges from its shell as when 

 great-grandchildren are performing like duties. We have heard various theories on this subject 

 of age, but do not consider any of them worth a second thought. 



The time of the year at which the birds should be put together varies according to 

 circumstances, as we briefly indicated in a previous chapter. There is nothing in the whole 

 round of Canary-breeding that requires such a cool head and the capacity for resisting temp- 

 tation as the itching desire every one has in the early spring for making a beginning. We 

 are not free from it ourselves, and do not know any one who is. The symptoms are pretty 

 much the same in every case, and generally show themselves on a sunny day after a short 

 country walk. Perhaps we have picked a sprig or two of chickweed or groundsel, and have 

 given our birds a taste all round, and next day find some of the hens carrying the bare stalks and 

 roots about the cage. It seems to have infused fresh life into the whole room and into ourselves 

 also. The weather continues open, and we take another stroll to gather fresh moss. We are as 

 restless as the birds and must be doing something : we cannot help it. The smell of newly-turned 

 earth in a ploughed field through which we have to pass only aggravates our complaint, while the 

 early spring song of the thrush or blackbird tells us that " the time of the singing of birds is 

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