Our  Canaries 
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others  took  the  young  from  the  hen,  putting  them  in  a  nursery  cage  in  front 
of  the  breeding  cage  so  that  the  hen  could  feed  them  through  the  wires  of  the 
cage.  But  I  have  seen  hens,  when  they  have  wanted  to  go  to  nest,  pluck 
the  young  through  the  wires  of  the  nursery  cage,  so  that  it  would  be  risky  to 
wean  Lizards  in  this  way.  The  best  plan  to  adopt  in  weaning  Lizards  is, 
the  first  time  you  see  the  young  perched  on  the  side  of  the  nest  box,  to  take 
MR.  LEVI  BUTTERWORTH  S  METHOD  OF  WEANING  YOUNG  LIZARD  CANARIES. 
the  nest  box  out  of  the  cage  and  leave  the  young  ones  with  the  hen  until  the 
following  morning.    I  rise  at  the  break  of  day  and  prepare  the  egg  food." 
THE  DEED  OF  SEPARATION. 
"  I  then  go  into  the  birdroom,  place  a  chair  in  front  of  the  window,  and 
put  the  weaning  cage  on  the  chair  in  the  best  possible  light.  Then  I  put  a 
small  saucer  containing  egg  food  on  the  cage  bottom  in  the  centre,  and  scatter 
egg  food  on  the  cage  bottom  on  each  side  of  the  saucer,  and  put  egg  food 
in  the  egg  drawer,  so  that  in  whatever  part  of  the  cage  the  birds  may  be, 
they  can  see  the  egg  food.  After  this,  no  matter  how  good  the  birds  may 
be  I  leave  them  without  the  least  anxiety.  I  have  not  lost  a  single  bird  m 
the  weaning  process  since  I  began  treating  them  in  this  way.  When  the 
young  have  been  in  the  cage  one  day,  I  remove  them  to  another  clean  one, 
also  in  a  light  place,  and  let  them  all  stay  together  for  about  two  days,  then 
if  any  are  likely  to  be  fit  for  the  show  bench  I  put  them  into  separate  cages. 
i 
