KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



365 



for fifteen years; and I do assure yon I have 

 done as well, on the average, with young 

 hens as ever I did with hens two years old. It 

 is true young "birds require looking after ; hut so 

 also do old hens, for that matter. So good an 

 opinion have I of young hens, that this very 

 season I have twenty-two pairs of "birds put up to 

 breed from. Of these, all the hens are young 

 birds; that is, birds bred last season. Eleven of 

 my male canaries are also of the same age, so you 

 see I have great faith in hens one year old. I 

 have, at the present time, one young hen who 

 has just brought out five of the finest young 

 birds that I ever saw. I have also another young 

 hen who has brought out a nest of four fine 

 young birds, and is now on her second nest of 

 eggs. My birds are left to themselves from half- 

 past six in the morning till five the next 

 morning ; with the exception of a few minutes 

 (at one o'clock), when soft food is given to the 

 breeding hens and young birds. I find that my 

 hens lay their eggs before six in the morning, and 

 not between seven and eight, as put forth in most 

 books on the breeding of canary birds. I have 

 made many experiments in breeding canaries, 

 which at some future period I will send you. In 

 the meantime, I will do all in my power to 

 promote the sale of your very excellent Journal. 

 I have procured you three more weekly sub- 

 scribers (making in all sixteen). I hope and 

 trust for all our sakes, you will never let the 

 Journal " say die." It is a work as much 

 wanted as it is universally esteemed where 

 known ; not only by the general public, but by 

 breeders and " the fancy" in particular, — to 

 whom all " facts" are of the utmost importance. 

 —J". A. B. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DAGUERREOTYPE. 



BY SIR DAVID BREWSTER. 



A VERY curious discovery, which it is im- 

 portant that the public should know, re- 

 specting the binocular daguerreotype por- 

 traits which have now become so popular, 

 has been recently made by Sir David Brew- 

 ster. The harsh and disagreeable expression 

 which characterises all sun pictures, but 

 especially the binocular ones when united 

 by the stereoscope, has been ascribed to the 

 imperfection of the lenses employed, the in- 

 stability of the sitter, and the necessary 

 constraint of feature and of limb under which 

 he submits to the operation. But whatever 

 may be the influence of these causes, there 

 is another which neither the artist nor the 

 sitter can control. Even if the lens is abso- 

 lutely perfect, the sitter motionless, and the 

 expression of his features such as should be 

 perpetuated, the portrait is a monstrous re- 

 presentation of humanity, which no eye, and 

 no pair of ej T es, ever saw or can see. This 

 character of photographic portraits arises 

 solely from the size of the lens ; and as every 

 photographer strives to procure large lenses, 

 for which he pays a high price, his very at- 

 tempt to improve his art leads him to pro- 



duce portraits deviating more and more from 

 pictorial truth. The cause of this is easily ap- 

 prehended. A perfect portrait is that which 

 an artist paints with one eye, or from a single 

 point of sight; but a portrait taken by a lens in 

 a camera is a combination of a great number 

 of portraits taken from a great number of 

 points of sight on the margin and throughout 

 the area of the lens. The consequence of this 

 is, that the whole figure and individual fea- 

 ture is a combination of lines or points in 

 different positions, and of lights and shadows 

 of different magnitudes and intensities. If 

 the commonest eye, therefore, can see very 

 distinctly, as it does, the great difference be- 

 tween two portraits, the one taken by the 

 left and the other by the right eye — which 

 are only two and a half inches distant — how 

 enormous must be the difference between 

 portraits taken at different points of the 

 margin of a lens four, five, or six inches in 

 diameter ! The perfection of the photogra- 

 phic art, therefore, but particularly of that 

 new department of it which consists in tak- 

 ing binocular portraits, which the stereo- 

 scope combines and exhibits in relief, de- 

 pends upon the discovery of a process so 

 sensitive that portraits can be taken by 

 lenses as near as possible to the size of the 

 pupil of the eye. 



NIGHTINGALES' EGGS,— 

 Can they he hatched by a Canary ? 



Can you tell me, Mr. Editor, if I can 

 succeed in rearing young Nightingales or 

 Blackcaps, by placing their eggs under a 

 canary ? I have just had a nest of night- 

 ingales' eggs brought me ; and as one of my 

 canaries is about to sit, might I not, by an 

 exchange of eggs, readily accomplish my 

 wishes? Please give an early answer to 

 this. Your admirer, G-. P. 



[We wish our " admirers " would study 

 nature a little more; and not cruelly rob 

 birds of their eggs and young, with a view to 

 make silly and zmnatural " experiments." 

 However, as a warning to others, we feel 

 sure we may harmlessly append the experi- 

 mental essay of that great authority, Mr. 

 Sweet, who says : — 



" Nightingales, blackcaps, &c, generally 

 build in low bushes, and very often in brambles 

 and tall weeds ; sometimes on the ground, 

 close to the edge of a ditch. A nightingale's 

 nest, which I discovered in the last-named 

 situation, was artfully covered with dry oak 

 leaves so as to escape detection for a long time, 

 although searched for with the utmost care. 

 It was found to contain four eggs. On look- 

 ing at them a day or two after, one had just 

 been hatched, and thinking it a good time for 

 trying an experiment (although fully con- 



