THE CANARY. 11 



not to match brother and sister together, as 

 it will be the means of losing their beautiful 

 colours; indeed, relationship of any kind, 

 however distant, ought to be carefully 

 avoided. 



BREEDING, MANAGEMENT, &c. 



When you put your birds in the breeding 

 cage, you must provide them with some 

 clean boxes to build in, and some elk's 

 hair, of which they will make their nests : 

 it will also be as well if you put a little hay 

 in the boxes, which will be the means of 

 enticing the birds to take to them the 

 sooner. 



When the hen has made her nest, be 

 careful not to disturb it, for it often makes 

 the hen very fretful and careless, so much 

 so, that I have known her to lay her eggs at 

 the bottom of the cage, by which means 

 they are frequently lost ; as it is a great 

 chance that a hen so disturbed will take to 

 her nest again. I have always seen that 

 the method adopted by the principal breed- 

 ers, when the hen has built her nest, is to 



