CANARY BIRD. 
4 Ad 
The dispositions of Canaries are as various as their colours ; some are 
gay, sportive, and delight in mirth and revelry, while others are sullen, 
intractable, and lazy. Some cocks are most assiduous in assisting the 
hen to build her nest, and even to hatch the eggs, while others will 
destroy the eggs, or tear the young from the nest, and kill them in their 
rage : the grey ones will never build, and the person who superintends 
these must make a nest for them. 
Mr. Syme informs us that he possessed a jonquil cock that used to 
nibble at its cage till he opened it, and then escaping from its prison- 
house, it would fly to the mantel-piece, where it would place itself on a 
china ornament, flutter as if in the act of washing, and continue to do 
so till water was brought. The same bird was so docile as to come, 
when called, to the hand, and hide trifling articles in the corner of its 
cage, stopping and looking round as if for encouragement and applause. 
But one of his favourite amusements was to perch upon the branches of 
a tall myrtle in a window where the cage frequently hung ; and he even 
became so bold, as to dart upon the ephemeral insects that rose from 
a stream close by, and which seemed to afford him a delicious banquet. 
Poor Dickie was, however, doomed to suffer for this indulgence, and 
one morning was found dead in his cage, having been killed by a young 
pointer, a privileged vagrant like himself. 
At a public exhibition of birds we are informed that one of these 
docile creatures acted the part of a deserter, and ran away, while two 
others pursued and caught him. A lighted match being given to one of 
these, he fired a small cannon, and the little deserter fell on his side, as 
if dead; another bird then appeared with a small wheel-barrow, for the 
purpose of carrying off the dead, but at its approach the little deserter 
started to his feet. 
Syme seems to think that these birds might be naturalized to our 
climate, having seen a pair flying about at liberty, probably an experi- 
ment to try if they would breed : and he thinks they had built a nest, 
from their being repeatedly observed flying in and out at one spot on 
the precipitous bank at St. Bernard’s well, near Edinburgh. 
A small breeding cage is all that is required for rearing these birds ; 
but where a room can be allotted to the purpose, it ought to have 
shrubs for them to roost and build, with plenty of water to drink 
and bathe in, that being indispensable for all birds. The light should be 
admitted into the room from the east, for the benefit of the morning- 
sun, and the windows should have wire cloth, that they may enjoy the 
fresh air. The floor of the apartment ought to be strewed with sand or 
white gravel, and on that should be thrown groundsel, chickweed, or 
scalded rapeseed ; but when breeding, they should have nothing except 
