32 



propensities, bad or good, whether the owner is in the room or not, 

 and it will be easy for him to detect mischievous hens, and to 

 counteract their misdeeds. If any of the hens are noticed to be 

 prone to injuring- their offspring-, they must be removed from the 

 room, and the young birds transferred to fresh nests, and en£ usted 

 to the care of less objectionable foster-mothers. Some hens will be 

 found to utter "nest calls" which would be likely to affect the song 

 of the young occupants of the room, and such hens are of course not 

 allowed to remain. Another class of offenders are those given to 

 plucking their young, and in these cases foster mothers may not 

 always be necessary ; if the young are old enough not to require her 

 bodily warmth, any such hen may simply be removed out of earshot 

 of her mate, and he will bring up the young unaided. 



In spite of every precaution some little annoyances may arise, and 

 must be met accordingly. In Germany, troubles, such as feather 

 plucking, are so little expected that the breeding cages are not even 

 furnished with a separate compartment for the fledglings, but in 

 England that very probable misbehaviour of the parent birds is 

 provided for from the first, and such a division forms nearly always 

 a part of our English breeding cages. 



If the behaviour of the old birds is sufficiently exemplary, and if 

 •space can be afforded, it is advisable to leave their young with them 

 for six or seven weeks. Then the young birds may be, very gradually, 

 weaned from the soft food and put on a seed diet. When the 

 separation of the young birds from their parents does take place, the 

 sexes also are separated. With the German birds this is an easy 

 matter, as will have been understood from my early remarks. The 

 young hens may be kept for a while in the breeding room, but the 

 future songsters must now be taken out of earshot of the breeding 

 stock, and commence their preparation for the position of premier 

 songsters of the world. 



