72 



CANARY BIRDS. 



of it (instructions for which are to be found further on) 

 succeeds, it will come cheaper by a third. " Children's " 

 biscuit scarcely moistened can also be used instead of egg- 

 food for raising young birds, especially if the females do 

 not like the former kind. Bocker feeds the birds during 

 breeding-time, exclusively, with the best rape-seed and with 

 fine egg-food, green herbs and canary- seed. He feeds all 

 males with egg-food all the year round. He says : " From 

 the beginning of March I give the soft food in greater "quan- 

 tity, and for every 20-30 birds I give an egg per day, and 

 several times a week a little canary-seed, and, besides, the 

 dry summer-seed, some which has been damped and pressed 

 should also be given ; egg-food is given twice, and, where 

 there are any young, even three times a day regularly, not 

 after 5 p.m., however, but rather as early in the morning as 

 possible. All females, even the least reliable among them, 

 feed their young copiously toward evening, and are apt to 

 overdo this, especially with soft food, so that the young are 

 suffocated during the night." 



The best method, in my opinion, is to offer each kind of 

 food in a separate vessel, lest the birds become too particular 

 in the choice of their food, and throw out that which does 

 not suit their taste. Variety in food, says Bocker, is not 

 without influence upon a vigorous development, and upon 

 the even colouring and regular marking of the plumage, but 

 it easily spoils the voice, and had best be omitted in the case 

 of Hartz-birds. 



Materials of Food for all Canaries.— Summer 



rape-seed is not easy to obtain in a suitable condition. It is 

 generally mixed with winter rape-seed, cole-seed, and, most 

 frequently, with the seed of the ground-ivy, and these seeds, 

 especially the last-named, are downright poison for the 

 delicate Hartz-birds. 



Good summer seed should be full grained, of a dark 



