278 CLASS AVES. 



him to love. These forced alliances are sometimes known 

 to succeed better than the others. 



Other males again, are of so barbarous a disposition, that 

 they will destroy the eggs, and often eat them in proportion 

 as the female lays them ; or, if these unnatural fathers 

 do suffer the females to sit^ scarcely do the little ones 

 appear before they seize them with their bill, and drag them 

 about the aviary until they are all dead. To remedy the 

 former evil, the first egg which the female lays must be taken 

 away, and one of ivory substituted in its place, and the same 

 done for the second the following day, the moment it is laid, 

 so that the male cannot break it ; and this plan must be per- 

 severed in to the last. Then the female, having no further 

 need of the male, he may be shut up in a separate cage, and 

 placed in or near the aviary during the whole time that she 

 is hatching. The eggs, according as they are taken away, 

 should be placed in a little deal box, filled with vitreous sand, 

 so as to preserve them freshly, and prevent them from being 

 broken. As for the male, who does not touch the eggs, but 

 kills the young, he also should be placed in a separate cage, 

 and in a similar position, the evening before the young are 

 about to be disclosed. There is no fear that the privation of 

 his female will cause him any ennui or disgust, or that she 

 will abandon her brood. If she be of a good race, she will 

 educate them very well without his assistance. But as soon 

 as the little ones are taken away for the purpose of feeding 

 them by hand, the prisoner may be let loose, and restored to 

 his female. The same process should be adopted at every 

 hatching. One would think that canaries of such a disposi- 

 tion ought to be rejected altogether ; but such means will 

 succeed when persons are absolutely desirous to have a brood 

 from them. 



We may further remark, that among the canaries, some 



