NESTING. 



87 



other brood-hen. One should, however, beware of touching 

 the eggs with one's bare fingers ; they should be taken out 

 with a spoon made of horn or wood. Mr. Gotschke, a 

 member of the Bird Society, Berlin, has in the simplest 

 manner contrived a pair of small feathering pincers, 

 made of thin wire and forming a loop on 

 both sides, by means of which the egg can 

 be conveniently and securely lifted out. 

 The layings of the canary-hen consist of 

 four to six eg^s, which are somewhat 

 variably coloured and marked ; they may 

 be lighter or darker ; and have whitish, 

 or sea-green, reddish-brown, or violet spots or streaks, and 

 they are generally marked with a wreath of spots at the 

 blunter end. These eggs are laid almost regularly at a 

 fixed time ; in most cases daily, or on alternate days, and 

 in 13 to 15 days, according to the greater or lesser degree 

 of warmth, they will be hatched. Such eggs as remain 

 lying in the nest three or four days beyond the hatching- 

 time, are usually spoiled, and must be removed, as well as 

 dead young birds, and to that end the above-mentioned 

 pincers will be particularly handy. 



The .female covers her young, which are usually quite 

 naked, but not quite blind, their eyelids only being closed 

 up to eight or ten days ; then the male principally under- 

 takes the further feeding. On the 18th or 21st day, the 

 young birds are so far fledged that they can leave the nest, 

 but for all that, they are still being fed by the male, and 

 must not be removed until the next young are again 

 fledged — in no case before the 25th or 26th day. The 

 longer they remain in the nest, however, the sturdier will 

 be their growth ; the sooner they take flight — sometimes as 

 early as the loth or 16th day — the greater will be the 

 dangers to which they are exposed. 



