Difficulties of Rearing. 6i 



course, means two most unpleasant prospects — viz., starvation and suffocation. We know of no 

 effectual cure for this " sweating," certainly not at the time we are penning these lines, though the 

 result of some experiments making in that direction may yet appear in due course. We have 

 seen all manner of cures prescribed, even to the extent of rigging up a contrivance which obliges 

 her to " sit" standing, but we cannot call to mind an instance of a cure. We have washed the breast 

 of the hen in salt and water, have ducked her in a pail, and have done perhaps some silly things in 

 our vexation, but with no other result except that the hen continued to " sweat," and so did we. 

 This ailment, however, is sometimes not of long duration, and the ill effects may then be combated 

 successfully by removing the cock, and thus obliging the hen to leave her nest to feed, or else starve. 

 This, at all events, affords the young ones an opportunity of getting partly dried, besides relieving 

 them from the suffocating pressure of the hen ; and to induce her to come off as often as possible, 

 it is well to put the cock in an adjoining compartment, if there be one vacant, or into one of the 

 spare nursery-cages we have described, and suspend it against the front of the cage in which the 

 hen is sitting. The consequence will be that he will incessantly call her to come to feed through 

 the wires — an invitation to which she will frequently respond ; and the chances are that, on returning 

 to her nest, she will sometimes be inclined to feed the young ones, whose importunity it is not easy 

 to withstand, and so this unpleasant feature is occasionally so far ameliorated as to allow of the nest 

 being saved. A hen can at any time bring up her nest without assistance from the cock, and this 

 plan of separating the parent birds is frequently resorted to in the case of an indifferent feeder, with 

 a view to compelling her to work harder. There is always a hopeful chance of saving a nest if 

 the fancier only has the time to devote to the room, because so long as the hen will keep the young 

 ones warm, the cock will always feed them, if the hen be driven off the nest to give him the 

 opportunity. But should a hen forsake her nest altogether, there is nothing left but to break up 

 the establishment, and distribute the young ones among the charitably-disposed occupants of other 

 cages, who will take kindly to the foundlings. 



This general uncertainty as to feeding, it will at once be inferred, is the great drawback 

 to success, and in the case of valuable birds it is not advisable to make success entirely dependent 

 upon such a contingency. It will be found most useful to put up a few pairs of the commoner 

 kinds of Canaries, in the hope that among them may be found a few good feeders, whose services 

 will then prove invaluable. The commoner the birds for this purpose, the less reluctance is felt in 

 destroying their eggs, and sometimes, unavoidably, their offspring, to make way for those of greater 

 value. No breeding-room should be without a number of these " feeders," who certainly earn their 

 hay and corn in the important work they discharge. 



Surely we are out of danger now, if by one means or another we have got our young birds up 

 to eight or nine days old } The risk certainly lessens every day, but a strange mortality attacks 

 birds sometimes at this age, just when they are going to begin to cut their teeth, or, rather, form their 

 feathers. We can do nothing further than mention what may occur, and what has occurred under 

 our observation more than once. We will suppose there to have been positively no drawback, and 

 that the young birds are even exceptionally fine and strong; yet, just at this age, a sickly, jaundiced 

 colour comes over the flesh, and nest after nest will die, plump and fat, and with their crops quite 

 full. We are apt to say they have died from surfeit ; but up to within a few hours of death every 

 function has been healthy and the digestive powers unimpaired, and we are rather disposed to 

 think the cause lies in another direction, probably in that we hinted at — some obstruction in the 

 feather-forming functions which at this time are called into action. It arises from no neglect or 

 outward cause, but is evidently an infant ailment, for which we can prescribe no remedy, for the 

 simple reason we know nothing definite of the disease. 



