io8 
Our  Canaries 
starting  point,  as  it  is  during  this  season  that  the  foundation  of  success  or 
failure,  as  the  case  may  be,  of  the  following  season  is  laid.  It  is,  too,  the 
period  when  one  seems  to  go  wrong  more  often  than  any  other.  Curiously 
enough,  during  the  time  the  birds  are  breeding  and  moulting  the  average 
fancier  seems  to  get  more  into  the  usual  and  proper  routine,  which  may  be 
but  the  natural  outcome  of  the  large  amount  of  practical  instruction  given 
during  these  seasons  in  the  weekly  journal  Cage  Birds.  But  when  the  moult 
is  over,  in  a  vast  proportion  of  cases,  the  birds  are  kept  on  a  diet  either  too 
high  or  too  low  in  condition,  so  that  by  the  time  the  new  year  opens,  the 
stock   is  either  run  down,  or  overfed   and  ready  to   come  into  premature 
breeding  condition  at  the  slightest  encouragement. 
In  either  case  the  result  is  bad,  and  will  not  add 
to  success  at  the  proper  season. 
YerLlr 
QUALIFYING  CONDITIONS. 
It  is  difficult  to  lay  down  hard  and  fast 
rules,  as  the  conditions  under  which  the  stock 
is  kept  will  make  a  material  difference  to  the 
diet  required.      Birds,  for  example,  which  are 
The  expression  method  of  relieving    kept  in  a  cold,  unheated  room,  with  limited  space 
obstinate  cases  of  egg-binding  in     ^  .„  ,  ,  ■  r 
Canary  hens,  as  practised  by  Dr.    for  exercise.  Will  require  a  greater  proportion  of 
T.  A.  Bowes.  hedit  forming,  or  oily  seeds,  to  keep  them  in  good 
condition,  than  will  those  which  are  housed  in  a 
comfortable  and  artificially  heated  room.  In  a 
manner  of  speaking,  artificial  heat  may  be  looked  upon  as  providing  in  a 
different  way  the  same  result  as  one  gets  from  fat,  oily  foods.  It  will  there- 
fore be  seen  that  a  diet  which  is  perfectly  suitable  for  birds  in  a  warm  room 
is  insufficient  for  those  kept  in  a  cold  one,  whilst  a  diet  which  would  be  most 
suitable  for  birds  in  a  cold  room,  with  plenty  of  exercise,  would  almost  certainly 
prove  too  stimulating  for  those  in  a  warm  room,  and  would  probaby  result  in 
bringing  them  into  breeding  condition  prematurely. 
After  a  sketch  kindly  supplied  by  Dr 
Bowes. 
HOW  DISCRETION  IS  NEEDED. 
It  is  easy  to  write  down  a  list  of  foods  which  should  not  be  given  too 
freely,  and  of  those  which  may  under  any  ordinary  circumstances  be  used  with 
freedom.  But  such  a  list  would,  after  all,  have  to  be  modified  to  suit  every 
particular  case,  and  in  modifying,  a  good  list  may,  through  ignorance  or 
indiscretion,  be  turned  into  a  bad  one.  As  a  staple  diet  during  the  winter 
months,  good  sound  Canary  seed  is  unrivalled.  This  and  a  little  pinch  of 
rape  every  second  day,  and  mixed  seeds  twice  a  week,  with  a  small  quantity 
of  egg-food  or  bread  and  milk  in  between  once  during  each  week,  and  a  spray 
