Artificial Feeding. 59 



for them to retrograde^ and we generally find ourselves every morning not " doing something in a 

 temporary way with a tea-pot," but with a hard-boiled egg in one hand and a little flat spatula of 

 a stick in the other. And our mode of procedure is this: — We cut a hard-boiled ^^% in halves, and 

 having moistened the yolk with saliva, we visit every nest, particularly the doubtful ones, and where 

 we find any empty crops we scrape up some egg with our little spatula, making it very moist, not 

 much thicker than cream in fact, and give the young birds a good feed. There is no difficulty in 

 making young Canaries open their mouths ; it is almost the first thing they do in this world, and 

 they never seem to forget the way ; the difficulty is to fill them fast enough. We never interfere 

 with any birds till they are twenty-four hours old, because the yolk absorbed into the stomach is 

 sufficient to sustain them for that time, and we like to give the hen a fair chance of feeding for 

 herself; but after that time the very youngest birds can be fed in this way, and, if attended to at 

 intervals, can frequently be kept going till the hen takes the work in hand. It will be seen that the 

 breeder who has the opportunity of visiting his birds frequently has a great advantage in being 

 able to do so. The man of business is perhaps compelled to leave them from morning till evening, 

 or, at the most, is able to snatch a few minutes in the middle of the day. But in most households 

 there is some person who can be trusted to attend to these matters, and when once it is taken 

 in hand, the interest felt in the little things, dependent on our attention for their lives, grows 

 immensely, and no bird will be allowed to die without a struggle having been made to save it. 



We have referred to this possible difficulty arising thus early, because it requires to be met at 

 the outset, and is one of the first disappointments the fancier may have to encounter. When all 

 is plain sailing, the business of the bird-room will run on wheels, despite indifferent management or 

 even positive neglect ; the birds will take the reins in their own hands, and astonish even the most 

 sanguine breeder by the way in which they will work out the problem we are endeavouring to show 

 him the way to solve. There are so many phases in Canary life, as seen in the nursery, that it is 

 almost impossible to arrange the various pictures in a very methodical manner, and our plan will be 

 to present them as we think it probable they may pass before the breeder's observation in some 

 cage or other in his room. So far as we have gone we have only dealt with the nest in its very 

 earliest stage, pointing out the dangers which beset it, and indicating the best methods of tiding 

 them over. The fancier will have noticed by this time that the cock can always be depended on as 

 a feeder; we never knew one, young or old, which was not reliable in this respect. He knows as 

 well as possible when things are not going on properly, and when he flies up to the nest with his 

 crop full of food, he will stand on the edge and say, as plainly as a Canary can say it, " You know 

 you are not doing your duty; those young ones under you are starving, and you know it. No, it's 

 not a bit of use your fluttering in that way; I don't intend to give you another mouthful. If you 

 don't mean to feed, just turn out, and I will do it, but don't sit there in that unnatural way, starving 

 the family, or there will be a coroner's inquest shortly." And then he looks round and round the 

 nest so wistfully, the very picture of affection and loving attention, twittering and doing all he can 

 to induce some youngster to pop its head out. Presently one pops up from behind, and in a 

 moment the cock has him, and stuffs him as quickly as possible, knowing the value of every 

 moment. And this he will do all day as patiently as possible, though every visit to the nest 

 generally ends in his ultimately giving the hen a great portion of the meal intended for the young 

 ones. Perhaps he does so in the hope that she will disgorge some of it; but that hope is too often 

 disappointed. 



We will not make the picture more dismal than there is occasion for, but suppose that the hen 

 is a model mother, and that from the first she settles down to her work in that earnest way the 

 breeder likes to see. The egg-trough in that cage will require filling two or three times a day, for 



