16 



CANARY BIRDS. 



bred in the same colours of vivid yellow and green, and they 

 are sold at about the same prices ; the usual food is canary- 

 seed, to which, during the breeding, some chopped egg is 

 added. 



The cross-breed between the wild cock and the tame hens 

 (called Verdegais on the island of Teneriffe), are said to be 

 often very beautiful and peculiar; a breeder in Orotava 

 bred some of a vivid brownish-yellow colour. Bolle states 

 he has seen the young of a bright yellow female bird which, 

 on the upper part of the body, was dark green, and from 

 the throat downward, of a pure golden colour, but then, 

 these birds were considered as being extremely rare. 



Dr. Bolle designates the wild canary as being, when cap- 

 tive, very delicate and subject to numerous diseases. 

 Bocker, on the contrary, writes : " The wild canary, when 

 once inured, is, according to my conviction, a sturdy bird, 

 and we have succeeded here in preserving him healthy and 

 cheerful for months together, and that under rather un- 

 favourable local conditions, and with very simple treatment. 

 He even endures the manipulation and inspection of the 

 various parts of his body quite as well as the tame bird, and 

 draughts and a variable temperature he will bear even 

 better than the latter does. The young canary, however, 

 in confinement, particularly requires young and not wholly 

 matured seeds, green herbs, as salad leaves, the leaves of the 

 young radish, and, if possible, a small piece of ripe fig. So 

 long as the birds remained under the care of my son, they 

 were quite healthy, although a great number of them had to 

 be kept in the same cage ; old dry canary-seed and the 

 ordinary food given to canaries does not agree with newly- 

 captured birds, and most of them perished through such a 

 diet. He found that they quickly grew thin, while the 

 abdomen was inflated, and, by means of their evacuations, 

 they then spread contagion among other birds ; my son has 



