SCIENCE 
IS 
KNOWLEDGE. 
KNOWLEDGE 
IS 
POWER, 
A PRACTICAL JOURNAL OF 
HOME ARTS 
Vol. VI. 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER, 1883. 
No. 9. 
Canaries ; 
How to Keep 
Them.-H. 
and Breed 
-BY GORDON STABLES. 
OU can turn the hen 
into the breeding- 
cage— it will be her 
home ; but the male 
bird must be kept in 
another cage and in 
another room. And 
in this manner they 
must be kept separ- 
ate until the breed- 
ing season, namely, 
about the second week of March, if the 
weather be mild and fine, but not until 
the last week if it is not so. If you do 
not attend to this hint illness of the hens 
and death of the nestlirigs may be the 
result, and you will have your labor lost 
find your hopes all bliglited. 
Now, some l)ree(lers, before turning the 
eiale bird into the breeding-cage, place 
the two cages in the same room and in 
sight of each other for a day or two. 
You may do this or not, as you please. 
I have sometimes thought it did good, 
but such great authorities as Mr. W. A. 
Blakston think it quite unnecessary. 
Anyhow, after you have turned in your 
birds, in nine cases out of ten they will 
soon become friendly enough, and the 
male will commence to feed his mate on 
the egg and bread-crumbs which you now 
specially prepare for them. Give them 
two or three teaspoonfuls of this fresh 
ever^^ day ; and it may be as well to mix 
with it now and then a little maw-seed or 
scalded summer rape, and now and then 
a little crushed hemp-seed. A portion of 
green food will also do good, either 
groundsel or chickweed. The bread- 
crumb should be stale, but not old. 
Lunch biscuit is perhaps as good, if not 
better, than bread, and a morsel of 
sponge-cake may be placed between the 
bars of the cage. Your birds are now 
properly paired, and matters, we trust, 
will go on swimmingly. By-and-by the 
hen will begin to lay, and it is a good 
plan to remove the egg very carefully 
each morning, placing it most gently in 
cotton wool, and substitutiDg, if yaU 
