Our  Canaries 
for  our  egg  food.  Among  French  breeders  a  kind  of  very  light  fancy  bread, 
called  "  Colifichet  "  is  frequently  used  as  part  of  the  bird's  diet ;  in  Germany 
a  kind  of  cake  known  as  "  Gofio "  ;  and  in  some  places  it  is  a  kind  of  cake 
called  "  Simnel "  cake  which  is  popular.  The  last  named  was  formerly  a  well- 
known  and  popular  cake  in  this  country,  it  being  a  time-honoured  custom 
amongst  our  forefathers  to  eat  "Simnel  cake"  with  the  old  folks  at  home  on 
"  Mothering  "  Sunday — as  the  fourth  Sabbath  in  Lent  is  still  called  in  country 
places,  and  when  recently  made  must  have  formed  an  excellent  substitute  for 
the  ordinary  egg  food,  compounded  as  it  invariably  was,  at  that  time  of 
hard-boiled  new-laid  eggs  and  stale  bread  crumbs — the  latter  probably  of  a 
far  coarser  and  less  refined  quality  than  is  common 
in  these  days. 
Mealworms  as  a  dietetic  tit-bit  are  given  by 
some  of  our  oldest  breeders  in  much  the  same  way 
as  they  are  given  to  Skylarks,  but  in  smaller  quantity— 
that  is,  one  or  two  a  day  in  addition  to  the  usual 
diet.  Canaries  which  have  come  to  recognise  these 
larvse  as  juicy  luxuries  know  well  enough  how  to 
deal  with  them,  and  there  will  be  no  risk  at  all  of 
them  creeping  away  if  they  are  simply  tossed  into 
the  cage,  or  placed  on  the  end  of  a  perch.  But 
Canaries  which  have  never  been  offered  them  are 
either  afraid  to  go  near,  or  totally  ignore  their 
presence,  so  that  it  is  necessary  to  provide  against 
them  making  unwelcome  excursions  all  over  the  room 
or  house,  by  crushing  the  head  part,  and  fastening 
the  mealworm  with  a  pin  on  to  the  end  of  a  perch, 
until  the  birds  have  been  "  blooded,  "  so  to  speak. 
Once  they  have  tasted  a  few  such  succulent  morsels 
they  will  require  no  inducements  to  take  them  promptly 
as  soon  as  the  opportunity  occurs.  That  they  are  most  beneficial  items,  we  have 
proved  beyond  doubt,  by  the  rapid  improvement  that  will  take  place  in  a 
bird  which  is  down  in  condition,  and  also  when  dragging  along  in  a  protracted 
soft  moult,  when  one  or  two  mealworms  a  day  are  added  to  the  diet  for  a  time. 
MEAT   FOR  CANARIES. 
To  the  great  majority  of  fanciers  flesh  meat  will  appear  as  the  strangest 
of  all  items  of  a  Canary's  diet.  Yet  it  has  its  devotees,  and  was  brought 
forward  for  discussion  at  a  debate  held  by  a  prominent  society  of  Canary 
breeders  a  few  years  ago.  At  this  meeting  Mr.  Ramsden  related  how,  on  a 
visit  to  Yarmouth  once,  he  saw  an  old  postman  with  what  is  known  as  a 
*' liver-knob"  (a  piece  of  boiled  liver),  grating  it  up  with  scraped   carrot  for 
The  Stalk,  Blade,  and  Head 
of  growing  Canary  Seed< 
