ORDER PASSERES. 301 



snow. The bath, by the way, is necessary for all the 

 canaries, and in every season. They should always, there- 

 fore, be provided with plenty of water, which should be 

 changed at least once a day. 



As for the pastes, &c. used for canaries, we must refer the 

 curious to such works as are expressly written on the subject. 

 Properly speaking, these things form no part of natural 

 history ; bvit a few general observations respecting the diet 

 of these birds may not be out of place. 



Great judgment is required both in feeding the young 

 birds, and in refusing them food. The least excess will 

 destroy them, and the want of regularity render them meagre 

 and emaciated, and unable to resist the effects of moulting. 

 Even if they escape with life from this change, their consti- 

 tutions are seriously injured, and both males and females 

 become weak, languishing, dull, and unfruitful. Under a 

 well regulated regimen, on the contrary, they will grow up 

 as strong and robust when fed by hand, as under the care of 

 their parents. To this care, however, they ought always to 

 be left, except when destined to an artificial education. 

 They should be fed almost every hour and a half, from half- 

 past six in the morning till eight at night, receiving three or 

 four bill-fulls each time, with a small and very smooth 

 wooden skewer. 



This feeding by hand is left off in about twenty-four or 

 twenty-five days, as soon as the young birds begin to peck of 

 themselves. They should be then kept in a cage without 

 perches, furnished with a little hay, or dry moss, and their 

 food, for the first month, should be composed of bruised hemp- 

 seed, yolk of hard egg, crumb of bread, and ripe anagallis : 

 their drink should be water, -vvith a little liquorice in it. 



Some young canaries, after feeding alone for a month, will 

 fall into a languor, and require again to be fed by hand. 

 This ought to be done as a sure means of getting them over the 



