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Our  Canaries 
"It  sometimes  happens  that  a  bird  will  get  '  stuck  in  its  moult.'  In  such 
cases,  put  the  bird  in  a  warm  place,  and  add  a  little  hot  cayenne  to  its  food  ;  this 
will  generally  restart  the  moult.  No  green  food  should  be  given  through  the 
moulting  season  to  birds  that  are  being  colour-fed,  as  the  feed  is  somewhat 
relaxing.  In  those  rare  cases  where  it  is  found  to  be  too  relaxing,  add  a  little 
rice  flour  to  the  feed.  Trouble  is  sometimes  experienced  in  weaning  birds  from 
the  colour-food,  especially  in  the  case  of  Cinnamons.  I  find  that  a  good  plan 
is  to  place  mixed  seed  on  top  of  the  colour-food,  and  gradually  reduce  the 
amount  of  colour-food  until  the  bird  is  being  fed  on  seed  only.  Those  who  wish 
to  keep  their  birds  fully  charged  with  colour,  I  would  advise  to  give  a  small 
amount  of  colour-food  once  a  week  right  through  the  show  season." 
FEEDING  FROM  THE  NEST. 
The  subject  of  colour-feeding  will  probably  always  have  both  supporters  and 
opponents.  But  it  is  an  infinitely  delicate  matter  to  deal  with  the  frail  and 
tender  constitutions  of  the  young  ere  they  leave  the  nest,  and  it  is  no  wonder 
that  the  followers  of  the  system  of  feeding  for  colour  generally  differ  amongst 
themselves  as  to  the  advisability  of  colour-feeding  from  the  nest.  Under  our 
present  system  colour-feeding  is  essential  to  success  on  the  show  bench  in  all 
colour  breeds.  Given  two  birds  equal  in  all  other  respects,  but  one  non-fed  or 
imperfectly  fed,  and  the  other  of  a  nice,  level  and  brilliant  colour,  no  judge  can 
conscientiously  ignore  the  latter.  It  is  his  bounden  duty  to  award  the  prizes  to 
the  best  bird  as  it  appears  before  him,  and  consequently  he  has  no  course  left  open 
but  to  award  the  palm  to  the  best  fed  bird  in  the  case  illustrated,  so  that 
colour,  and  colour  alone,  may  be  said  to  have  won,  and  rightly  so. 
Feeding  from  the  nest  has  certain  points  in  its  favour.  In  the  first  place 
it  will  do  away  with  the  necessity  of  the  cruel  operations  of  "  tailing  and  flighting  " 
the  young  birds,  as  their  feathers  will  absorb  sufficient  colour  from  nest  feeding  to 
pass  muster  on  the  show  bench  after  the  moult.  Another  advantage  is  that 
nest-feeding  paves  the  way,  so  to  speak,  for  the  colour-feeding  proper,  as  the 
bird's  system  will  be  already  highly  impregnated  with  the  necessary  colouring 
agents,  and  when  feeding  begins  prior  to  the  moult  the  superfluous  colour  will 
the  more  readily  overflow  and  be  deposited  in  the  new  growing  plumage. 
Again,  there  are  many  hens  that  have  evidently  acquired  a  fondness  for 
colour-food  in  the  shape  of  sweet  or  tasteless  pepper  when  it  is  made 
palatable  in  the  egg-food,  and  such  hens  not  only  devour  the  soft  food  more 
eagerly,  but  feed  the  young  more  freely  upon  it.  But  let  it  be  clearly  under- 
stood that  for  nest-feeding  the  "cold"  feeds  only  must  be  employed.  Hot 
Natal  and  cayenne  pepper  must  be  utterly  avoided.  It  is  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance that  the  feeds  should  be  of  the  best,  and  absolutely  pure.  The 
cheapest  food  may  well  be  the  most  costly  in  the  end,  for  even  a  triflin^y 
