The Young when Feathering-. 63 



as possible. Despite all the misadventures to which we have called attention, it is just as likely the 

 breeder may go through a season without troubles as with them, and we now return to our nests as 

 though there were no such things as failures in eggs, or failures in hens, or failures in anything. 

 Nothing seems to come amiss to our birds : they are all feeding well, and several nests contain four 

 and five young ones which are rapidly feathering. At this period of their growth it will be of 

 advantage to notice the principal portions of the body on which the feathers grow. It does not 

 follow that, because a bird is covered with feathers, the covering sprouts from every part of the 

 surface of the body, and such will be seen not to be the case ; a bit of knowledge to be turned to 

 account when we come to speak of washing for exhibition. Briefly, a strip of feathers will be 

 observed to run down the back of the neck, which, with two broad bands, one on each side of the 

 breast, and two smaller ones on the back, will be found to be the principal plantations from which 

 will eventually depend feathers covering otherwise bare places. This is the time, too, when the 

 fancier is able to note whether his expected clear birds are going to be disfigured with dark 

 feathers, or his dark ones with clear feathers ; for every individual feather is discernible, and in 

 nearly every variety, and every class of that variety, the future character of the bird is to be read 

 at this early period of its life with tolerable certainty. Nothing further need engross the attention 

 of the breeder for another week or fortnight, except to see the birds grow and feather ; and by 

 comparison between a nest that is doing well, or better than well, and one which, though safe, is not 

 quite up to the mark, he will be able to learn, better than any words can describe, the difference 

 between the results of good feeding and attention not so constant — a difference so marked that 

 those who may think this portion of our subject tedious will, when they come to see the importance 

 of it, wish we had even gone more minutely into it, giving every possible aspect of the case, seeing 

 that on it depends, in the first place, the very existence of the bird, and, subsequently, its growth to 

 mediocrity or advance to high excellence. 



It is at this early stage of growth, before the young bird has any idea of using its wings beyond 

 a continuous flap, flap, while being fed, though it has a very good idea of a clumsy scramble, that 

 the nest should be examined for insects, and, if any be found, at once condemned, and a clean 

 one substituted. There is no occasion to study how to make it a fac-simile of the old one, because 

 there is always a strong family likeness between one tin nest lined with felt and another — a thing 

 about which, however, the Canary never troubles herself Remember that an instinct in the first 

 instance led her to find a place in which to lay, and guided her in adapting it to her purpose ; but 

 having laid her eggs and hatched her young, her affection for them is paramount, and she will cling 

 to them wherever she finds them, in whatever sort of nest they may be. Should a wooden nest-box 

 be found infested, and it be wished to replace it by an imitation of a natural nest, the best plan is to 

 shape it with moss inside the box, then line with a little hair, and finish off by working the cap of 

 the nest by pressure with a hard-boiled &%^, twisting it round and round till the nest is shaped — a 

 plan some breeders adopt in the outset. Mark that the hen won't destroy such a nest ; if she 

 were wishing to build, she would soon put it to rights ; but when her object is to lay; or having 

 laid, to sit; or having hatched, to feed, she accepts each position in the full exercise of the reigning 

 instinctive faculty of the hour. 



Having furnished a clean nest, which will be none the worse for being a size larger than the 

 original, the young ones must not again be interfered with ; and not only so, but must be 

 kept quiet, for if they are once frightened from the nest it is very difficult to make them 

 take to it again. There is, of course, no danger of this occurring now, but a week hence 

 such a thing might easily happen. A breeder is always very glad when his young ones are 

 strong enough to leave the nest, and is glad to see them go, but he is always desirous to keep 



