HIBERNATION OF BREEDING BTRDS. 



97 



ten ; in more unfavourable cases at five or eight, but rarely 

 at more than fifteen cockerels from each breeding-cock ; as 

 a rule, however, the result will be greatly in arrear of the 

 stated maximum performance. Brandner assumes only 

 eight to nine males, from a cock with three hens in the 

 hatching-cage, and, under the same conditions, six to seven 

 only, in the flying-hatch. According to Maschke, one old 

 cock will produce six to eight cockerels at the most, and 

 that is if four females be allotted to him, two young from 

 each hen. He says each female lays, on an average, fourteen 

 eggs in three to four hatchings. Of these, eight would pro- 

 duce males, and six females, but with the disheartening 

 result that three-fourths of the eggs are useless. 



Hibernation of Breeding Birds.— The breeding- 

 time once completed, the males are placed in separate cages, 

 and all the females by themselves, in a very spacious cage. 

 During the winter the hens may also be permitted to fly 

 about iu their nesting-rooms, from which, however, the 

 soiled sitting-poles, the nests, etc., will first be removed. 

 Experience has taught us that the common canaries may 

 safely be hibernated in an unheated room, and that they 

 will even be the healthier and fresher for it. They should 

 be abundantly fed with seeds, also with hemp, and, in cold 

 weather, given fresh drinking-water three times a day, the 

 latter having been kept for some hours previously in a 

 heated room ; moreover, the drinking-vessels, which must be 

 kept scrupulously clean, must be so arranged that the birds 

 cannot bathe in them ; a net of tinned wire, standing on feet 

 of the same material, being placed in the large water-basin, 

 the loops of the net so wide, however, that the birds cannot 

 remain with their heads sticking in them, and so get 

 drowned. The females of the Hartz-breed may, and indeeJ 

 should, regularly hibernate in a cool room, but should not, 

 like the common German canary, be kept in a room which 



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