Our  Canaries 
211 
Pods  o5  the  tasteless  (or  "sweet")  pepper. 
described.  If  the  pepper  used  be  somewhat  dry,  2  oz.  of  salad  oil  should  be 
added  to  each  pound  of  pepper.  The  oil  assists  in  extracting  colour  ;  it  also 
produces  a  gloss  or  sheen  upon  the  plumage.  Care  must  be  taken  not  to 
make  the  egg-food  too  rich,  as  a  continued  use  of  rich  food  is  apt  to  upset 
the  bird's  liver.  A  good  many  fanciers  use  too  much  pepper;  they  overdo  it. 
The  blood,  it  should  be  remembered,  will  only  absorb  a  certain  amount  of 
colour — to  give  more  is  to  court  disaster. 
"  To  those  who  desire  to 
merely  improve  the  colour  of 
their  birds,  and  not  to  colour- 
feed  for  show  purposes,  a 
simple  method  is,  to  make  or 
get  made  a  sponge  cake  or 
other  suitable  cake,  in  which 
has  been  mixed  some  tasteless 
pepper.  A  small  piece  of  this 
coloured  cake  can  be  grated 
and  given  daily,  but  such  good 
results  will  not  be  obtained  from  this  as  from  the  fresh-made  egg-food.  To 
obviate  'tailing'  and  'flighting,'  birds  intended  for  first-feather  shows  should 
be  colour-fed  from  the  nest.  The  mixture  described  above  should  be  given, 
and  I  have  always  found  breeding  hens  feed  well  on  it." 
DAILY    FEEDING  ESSENTIAL. 
"  Long  experience  has  proved  to  me  that  the  average  bird  colours  better 
when  fed  on  colour  food  daily,  and  is  of  decidedly  stronger  constitution  when  the 
seed  box  is  not  removed  from  the  cage.  I  am  willing  to  admit  that  a  bird  teem- 
ing with  natural  colour  will  colour  well  if  fed  every  other  day;  but  all  birds  are 
not  full  of  natural  colour,  and  it  would  be  foolish  for  anyone  to  expect  birds  of 
poor  natural  colour  to  colour  well  unless  colour-fed  daily. 
"  In  those  rare  cases  where  a  bird  refuses  to  eat  colour-food  remove  the  seed 
box  from  the  cage  during  the  day  and  replace  same  during  the  evening  for  an 
hour  or  so.  The  bird  will  then  be  forced  to  eat  the  food  provided,  and  having 
once  tasted  it,  will  not  require  forcing  again.  Towards  the  end  of  the  moult, 
give  the  birds  a  little  iron  as  a  tonic.  Iron  feeds  the  blood  with  its  colouring 
matter,  and  fixes  the  colour  on  the  plumage.  As  colouring  matter  deposited  by 
vegetable  substances  fades  more  or  less,  it  is  important  that  something  should 
be  used  to  fix  the  colour,  and  I  believe  the  best  agent  to  be  either  sulphate 
or  citrate  of  iron.  The  daily  dose  must  be  a  small  one.  Sulphate  or 
citrate  of  iron  can  be  given  in  the  drinking  water,  say  about  ten  grains  to  the 
quart. 
