CANARY-BIRD. 
120 
for themfelves had they been reared by their 
parents in a hate of nature and liberty. But 
being under reftraint, fed by us and made more 
delicate, moulting, which to birds at freedom 
is only an indifpoiition, a lefs perfect hate of 
health, becomes to thofe in captivity a ferious 
and often fatal malady, for which indeed there 
are but few remedies *. It remains only to fay 
that moulting is the lefs dangerous, if it hap- 
pens early, that is, in a good feafon of the year. 
Young Canary-Birds moult early in the year, 
about hx weeks after they are hatched : they 
become melancholy, appear rough, and put 
their head under the wing. Their down falls 
in this find moulting, and in the fecond the 
following year •, the large feathers, even thofe 
of the wings and tail, fall likewife. The young 
birds of the ia-fi: brood, which have not been 
hatched till September or later, fuffer accord- 
ingly much more in moulting than thofe which 
were hatched in the Spring. Cold weather is 
very unfriendly to this ftate, and they would 
all die were they not kept in a temperate, or ra- 
* At moulting time put a l it of fteel, not iron, into their 
water, changing it three time's a week : give them no other 
medicine, only put a little hi ore hemp-feed than ufual among 
their meat during this critical period. Note of F alley Baavot. 
Older ve that fceel is preferable to iron, only that you may 
he fure there is no ruil, which would do more harm than 
good. 
