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baker's shop. " Zwieback " is virtually a superior tea-cake, cut in 

 slices and slowly re-baked until all the moisture is gone. Crushed 

 with a rolling-pin into powder, and moistened with warm water, it 

 will keep sweet for some days if placed in a cool pantry, and mixes 

 readily with the egg. When, however, breeding is in full swing, and a 

 score of old birds are busy with their first broods, the quantity above 

 named is only enough for one meal in the morning. By ten o'clock 

 it is all gone, and a fresh supply has to be provided, which is 

 preferable to giving double quantities at a time. 



Stimulating mature birds for the purpose of bringing them on for 

 breeding should never be necessary. If the German hens have been 

 properly treated through the cold season, they are quite ready by 

 March. The trouble lies in the other direction, viz. : to subdue the 

 ardour of both hens and cocks until the natural pairing time has 

 arrived : this is mainly achieved by never allowing the two sexes to 

 even hear each other. 



To really weak, backward birds, or when very early broods are 

 desired, stimulants may be given for a week or two until the hen has 

 begun to sit in earnest — but no longer — the white of egg supplies all 

 the moisture necessary, and the shell is highly beneficial, especially to 

 the laying hens. 



With rape seed, and an abundant supply of egg food given two or 

 three times daily, one would think Canaries ought to rear any number 

 of young, but practice has proved this to be otherwise. The German 

 theory has always been that the Canary, being a seed eating Finch, 

 should not always have access to soft food, even while propagating its 

 species,, and that it should be induced to rear its young on grain food, 

 if not entirely, at least in large proportions. The digestive organs of 

 the young birds are well able to assimilate seed in the condition in 

 which the parents present it to them, i.e., in a partly digested state, 

 varying according to the age of the recipients. 



SEED FOR NESTLINGS. 



The difficulty staring the breeder in the face is this — an apparently 

 insurmountable one— to make the old birds take up grain food for 

 their progeny, since it is pretty generally known that the majority of 

 breeding Canaries will let their young starve rather than feed them 

 on any but soft food. 



