56 Caxaries and Cage-Birds. 



of the windows as in domestic duties. The remedy in this case is to draw down the blinds, by 

 tacking a sheet of brown paper in front of the cage. Many breeders make a practice of doing 

 this in every instance, to ensure complete privacy, and it is by no means a bad plan, especially 

 when the arrangement of the cages is such that the birds in some of the compartments can see 

 those in others. Besides, it is enough to make any hen feel uncomfortable to be compelled to 

 witness the disgraceful spectacle of her mate sitting with his arm round another hen's waist, vowing 

 the same eternal fidelity which he swore to her not ten days before. 



Such, we think, are the principal features to be noticed during incubation, which we will assume 

 has gone on for five or six days. At the expiration of this period the eggs may be examined, to 

 see how many are fertile, for it sometimes so happens that it may be found necessary, with a view 

 to saving time or obtaining a final nest late in the season, to combine two nests, due at the same 

 date, into one. A practised eye can detect at a glance what eggs are " full " and what are not, 

 without taking them in the hand ; but if they be held up to the light the fertile eggs will be found 

 to be one-half opaque, or rapidly becoming so, the dividing line being drawn diagonally. A day 

 later, and, in a strong light, the network of blood-vessels can be distinctly traced spreading over the 

 inner surface of the shell; and a day later still the fertile egg becomes entirely opaque, while the 

 unimpregnated ones remain perfectly transparent. An " empty " egg in a nest of four or five 

 should not be removed, as the young ones, when hatched, will cluster over it, and it serves as 

 a support for them ; fragile as it is, they will not break it, though it be allowed to remain till 

 they are full-grown. 



But the fancier must not, even at this advanced stage, begin to practise that simple elementary 

 arithmetical process which, experience has shown, frequently results in erroneous conclusions ; he 

 must wait patiently till the morning of the thirteenth day, before which arrives he may have learnt 



a practical application of another wise saw — " Many a slip " We all know the rest and have 



often experienced it — the proverb is stale, but very true. A man, to become a successful Canary- 

 breeder, must have the property of patience strongly woven in his composition, and will be all the 

 more likely to train on if he have one or two strains of Job blood in his veins. The principal 

 dangers to be apprehended in the later stages of incubation are the misfortune of the hen forsaking 

 her eggs, or the young birds dying in the shell — "going back," as it is called. The former may 

 arise from the sitting-fever subsiding, which may be occasioned by a sudden change in the 

 weather — such as the advent of a second winter, or any marked fall in the temperature, which 

 affects the sitting hens to a considerable degree. They do not like the long, cold nights, and 

 this is when the value of the gas-stove will be seen. Similar causes may have a fatal effect 

 on the young ones in the shell, but most probably the decline in the natural heat of the hen's 

 body has most to do with it. It is the steady decline, the gradual dying out of the fire at a 

 time when the flame ought to be kept up, that does the mischief. Young birds, when within 

 a day or two of hatching, can survive several hours of exposure, and if the eggs be found to 

 be quite cold they should still be persevered with. We are assuming an instance, not of gradual 

 decline, but of accidental exposure, say, from a hen having been inadvertently shut off from her 

 nest. In such cases we never give up till, from the lapse of time, we are satisfied of the futility 

 of prolonged effort. We knew, on one occasion, of a hen having been shut off into the next 

 compartment, where she remained all night and well into the next morning before the mistake was 

 discovered, and yet every egg hatched ; and we feel sure that many breeders could tell of similar 

 occurrences. 



The Canary sits thirteen days, and hatches almost to the hour with commendable punctuality. 

 But if — we are never done with but's and if's— the eggs do not "chip" at the time expected, and 



