Our  Canaries 
i8i 
to  the  influence  of  heat,  such  being  termed  unfertile,  or  in  more  common 
parlance,  "  clear "  eggs.  These  latter  eggs,  if  sat  upon  for  a  full  period  of 
incubation,  will  still  present  the  same  appearance  when  broken  as  a  freshly 
laid  egg.  It  does  not  follow  that  because  a  true  pair  of  birds  have  been 
kept  together,  and  have  apparently  gone  through  all  the  forms  of  mating 
and  copulation,  the  eggs  will  prove  fertile ;  such  is  by  no  means  a  uni- 
versal rule.  Sometimes  the  contents  of  the  shells  dry  up  into  a  hard 
mass  during  incubation.  These  eggs  may  be  either  fertile  or  unfertile,  but 
the  shells  are  of  an  imperfect  description,  too  porous  in  character,  and  allow 
the  moisture  in  the  egg  to  evaporate  when  heat  is  applied,  so  that  instead 
of  hatching,  supposing  them  to  be  fertile,  they  become  a  tiny  mass  of 
solidified  albumen. 
Addled  eggs  are  those  which  have  been  duly  fertilized  but  in  which  the 
germ  for  some  reason  has  lost  its  vitality  after  commencing  to  develop 
and  before  reaching  the  complete  stage;  the  germs  having  died, 
decomposition  soon  sets  in,  and  at  the  end  of  the  period  of  incubation 
such  eggs  will  contain  a  mass  of  foul-smelling  decomposed  matter  varying 
in  degree  with  the  stage  of  development  which  the  chick  had  reached.  It 
may  be  little  more  than  a  fresh  egg  with  slight  streaks  of  blood, 
which  are  slightly  malodorous;  or  it  may  be  an  almost  fully  developed 
chick  which  assails  the  nasal  organs  with  violence.  Full-grown  chicks  dead 
in  shell  may  sometimes  be  the  outcome  of  sudden  vibratory  noises,  such 
as  slamming  of  doors,  vigorous  hammering  close  at  hand,  and  the  like, 
and  can  only  be  prevented  by  the  avoidance  of  the  causes. 
THE  FOOD  SUPPLY. 
When  the  young  have  duly  made  their  debut  on  the  stage  of  this 
mundane  sphere,  the  wherewithal  to  support  the  spark  of  life  and  develop 
the  immature  frame  is  the  first  consideration.  For  the  first  week  or  so  this 
duty  devolves  almost  solely  upon  the  hen,  who  must  have  a  regular  supply 
of  food  suitable  for  the  purpose  always  accessible  from  the  evening  of  the 
thirteenth  day  of  incubation.  What  this  food  consists  of  will  depend  to  a 
certain  extent  upon  the  leanings  of  the  fancier.  There  are  probably  few 
subjects  upon  which  the  principle  of  the  well-worn  adage,  "  many  men,  many 
minds,"  is  seen  with  more  effect  than  upon  that  of  feeding  and  rearing  young 
Canaries.  Whilst  in  the  early  days  of  the  Fancy  there  would  seem  to  have 
been  scarcely  two  ideas  upon  the  question  of  the  proper  food  for  rearing 
the  young,  now-a-days,  when  the  hobby  is  almost  universally  popular,  this 
same  question  of  food  has  become  quite  a  thorny  one,  and  instead  of  fanciers 
being  of  one  mind,  there  are  scores  of  fanciers  to  be  met  with  daily  holding 
just  as  many  dift^'erent  views.  There  exist  the  egg  and  the  no-egg-from- 
conviction  class,  and  a  very  great  class   who  would  like  to  dispense  with 
