204 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [7:8— Nov., 1911 



consists of a mixture of seeds, millet, canary, rape and hemp ; 

 cuttle bone is useful and lettuce leaves, pieces of apple, and 

 other fruit, bread crumbs and particles of other food from the 

 table may be given occasionally for variety. About the first of 

 March a pair of canaries should be placed together in a cage and 

 provided with a nest which may be purchased at any fancier's 

 store and consists of a little wire cup in which is placed a layer 

 of felt. The female deposits from 2 to 7 eggs, incubates them 

 for from 12 to 14 days and then feeds the young by placing food 

 in their mouths. In this she is assisted by the male. When rear- 

 ing young it is customary to feed the old birds hard boiled egg- 

 grated fine and this is good at any time. During the breeding- 

 period it is well to omit the baths which are supplied during the 

 rest of the season as the wet birds will tend to chill the eggs. 

 Egg laying usually ceases in August and the parent birds may 

 then be returned to a larger cage. In mating the birds the male 

 can be distinguished from the female by the fact that it sings. 

 In case one wishes to be sure of the identity of the offspring 

 of a particular pair of birds they should be provided with leg- 

 bands. These legbands, stamped with numbers, may be obtained 

 of John H. Parker, 125 S. 7th Street, Philadelphia, Pa. By 

 keeping records of the origin of birds at the same time the num- 

 bers are placed upon the legs an accurate pedigree history may 

 be preserved and one may make an interesting study of the inheri- 

 tance of color, crest, song and so on. 



In conclusion the reader is referred to Cassel's Illustrated 

 Book of Canaries and Cage Birds, written by Blakston and 

 others, which costs about $8 and is the best of its kind, and to 

 Cage Birds, a weekly periodical published in London. 



