Oitr  Canaries 
185 
"  In  favour  of  the  hen  being  the  source  of  the  trouble  there  are  the 
following  facts  :  {i.)  It  will  occur  time  after  time  with  the  same  hen  with  the 
eggs  from  another  pair;  (w.)  Artificial  feeding  will  sometimes  tide  the  young 
over  till  their  strength  returns  and  they  make  their  own  demands  for  food 
greater,  if  their  condition  is  not  too  bad  when  this  feeding  is  resorted  to  ; 
(m.)  Remove  the  young  to  another  hen  who  is  feeding  well,  and  the  con- 
dition disappears  at  once  and  the  youngsters  make  headway." 
CANNIBAL  TRAITS. 
Other  vices  of  the  parents,  from  which  neither  male  nor  female  is  quite 
free,  would  seem  to  display  on  the  part  of  the  birds  a  bent  towards  cannibalism. 
"  The  most  critical  period  in  the  liic  ol  the  young  birds  is  when  they 
arc  just  leaving  their  parents." 
It  sometimes  happens  that  the  young  when  only  a  few  days  old  are  discovered 
minus  toes  and  beaks,  which  appear  to  have  been  bitten  off  by  one  or  other 
of  the  old  birds.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  say  whether  this  is  done 
deliberately  and  with  malicious  intent,  or  whether  it  is  the  result  of  accident 
—the  old  bird  or  birds  nipping  the  parts  involved  in  mistake  for  something 
quite  different.  In  some  cases,  at  least,  we  are  inclined  to  think  it  is  indirectly 
caused  by  insects  worrying  the  hen,  and  as  it  is  extremely  rare  one  hears 
of  it  occurring  among  well  managed  stocks,  the  inference  is  that  some  fault 
of  management  may  very  often  be  at  the  root  of  the  mischief,  the  means  of 
combating  it  being  in  that  case  obvious.  Later  on,  when  the  plumage  of  the 
young  is  bursting  the  quill,  and  onwards  until  they  leave  the  nest,  the 
trouble  of  a  hen  plucking  out  the  plumage  of  the  young  is  a  very  common 
