Our  Canaries 
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use.  With  this  exception  most,  if  not  all,  other  ordinarily  employed  seeds  are 
best  used  within  the  year  following  the  growth  for  reasons  which  will  be  found  in 
a  later  chapter  on  seeds  and  foods.  It  is  when  we  come  to  deal  with  putrescible 
items  of  food  as  soft,  moist  articles  such  as  egg  food,  bread  and  milk,  and  so 
forth,  that  absolute  freshness  is  of  the  first  importance,  and  which,  also  will  be 
presently  dealt  with. 
NECESSARIES  OF  LIFE. 
Contrary  to  the  opinion  sometimes  expressed  the  actual  necessaries  of  life  are 
extremely  limited  in  number,  and  might  for  all  practical  purposes,  and  often 
with  decided  benefit  to  the  health  of  the  birds,  be  almost  entirely  restricted  to 
four  or  five  items.  It  must  not  for  a  moment  be  considered  a  real  necessity  to  be 
constantly  changing  the  food  from  one  item  to  another  in  order  to  ensure  the 
health  of  the  bird.  Such  is  by  no  means  the  case,  and  it  is  no  uncommon  rule  to 
find  that  the  birds  which  most  frequently  break  down,  or  end  their  career  of 
usefulness  prematurely  are  just  those  which  have  been  consistently  treated  most 
liberally  in  the  way  of  multifarious  items  of  food,  under  the  mistaken  impression 
that  the  greater  variety  of  food  supplied  meant  corresponding  increase  of  health 
and  fitness. 
THE    BOUNDS    OF  VARIETY. 
Of  course  this  must  not  be  taken  as  a  disparagement  of  all  variety  in  feeding, 
as,  within  certain  limits,  it  is  both  wholesome  and  beneficial,  but  what  we  wish  to 
be  clearly  understood  is  that  the  thing  may  be  very  easily  overdone,  and  that  a 
slavish  devotion  to  constantly  recurring  changes  of  regime  are  the  outcome  of  a 
mistaken  notion  concerning  the  importance  and  necessity  of  such  changes.  Good 
sound  Canary  seed,  and  well  stored  summer  rape,  are  the  "bread  and  meat,"  so  to 
speak,  of  the  Canary,  and  almost  the  only  items  of  diet  which  may  be  considered 
as  wholly  indispensable,  and  must  be  always  on  the  menu  either  mixed  together 
or  separately,  as  the  convenience  of  the  owner  or  other  circumstances  suggest. 
THE  MENU  IN  DETAIL. 
In  addition  to  this  necessary  staff  of  life  other  items  may  be  looked  upon 
as  either  partial  or  sole  luxuries  ;  those  which  we  would  put  under  the  former 
classification  being  in  certain  conditions,  and  at  particular  seasons,  among 
the  most  urgent  necessities.  Hemp  for  instance  must  be  regarded  as 
essential  during  a  good  portion  of  the  breeding  season,  and  in  a  minor  degree 
during  severe  winter  weather  where  birds  are  kept  in  outdoor  avairies  or  cold 
rooms.  At  other  times  it  is  a  luxury  best  suited  for  occasional  use.  White 
millet  although  never  largely  used  as  food  for  Canaries  in  this  country,  was 
at  one  time  much  in  favour  with  Continental  breeders — chiefly  French  and 
Belgian  breeders  of  large  framed  birds — with  whom  it  formed  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  staple  food  of  their  birds.  Its  use  in  appreciable  quantity  can, 
therefore,  scarcely  be  so  disastrous  as   English   breeders  have  been  led  to 
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