292 CLASS AVES. ^ 



placed on the opposite side, because the females then begin 

 to occupy themselves about a new brood, though they are 

 still feeding the young of the former. Some varieties of the 

 canary are so idle, that it is better to make the nest for them ; 

 if they do not find it to their taste, they have only the trouble 

 of setting it to rights. 



Too much precaution cannot be used in the choice of food 

 for these little birds ; to give them too much or too little, is 

 equally injurious. One should also know the proper food to 

 give them, and the proper time for feeding them, with a par- 

 ticular food ; what is proper in one season, is often poison in 

 another. When they can eat alone, their usual food is rape- 

 seed, millet, grass-seed, and hempseed ; they are mixed in 

 the following proportions : half a pint of hempseed, as much 

 of grass-seed, a pint of millet, and six pints of rapeseed, well 

 fanned ; the whole mixed together. This mixture should be 

 kept in an oak-box, well closed, to prevent any dirt from fall- 

 ing into it ; a sufficient quantity to last two days is put into 

 their drawer. Some persons give them nothing but rape- 

 seed, but this is not sufficiently nourishing ; it makes them 

 melancholy and thin, especially the young of the last brood, 

 which are not so robust as the others. Some give them hemp- 

 seed in abundance, particularly when they couple with gold- 

 finches, siskins, &c. : but this aliment is actual poison for 

 them when it is not mixed with others, and that in small 

 quantity. Moreover, all these seeds should not be too fresh, 

 otherwise they may produce maladies. 



When the canaries are coupled, they give them, beside 

 these grains, a little simnel, or some hard biscuit, particularly 

 when it is observed that the female is ready to lay. They 

 give them besides, for the first eight days, a considerable 

 quantity of lettuce-seed ; this purges them. 



The most difficult time to manage the canaries is when they 

 have young ones. The evening before they should appear, 



