CANARY BIRD. 
78 
hard chopped eggs, dry bread, cake without salt, and, once in two or 
three days, a few poppy-seeds. Some bird-fanciers give their breeding- 
l)irds plantain and lettuce-seed ; but this should be done sparing-ly, and 
only for two days, lest it should weaken them. 
About the 15th of April they ought to be furnished with flax, soft 
hay, wool, hair, moss, and other dry materials, for building the nest, 
which usually occupies three days : the time of incubation is thirteen 
days ; but when the hen has sat eight or nine days, it is necessary to 
examine the eggs, holding them carefully by the ends, against the sun 
or a lighted candle, and to throw away the clear ones. Some bird-fanciers 
sul)stitute an ivory egg until the last is laid, when the real ones are 
replaced, that they may be hatched at the same time. 
When the young are to be reared by the stick, they must be taken 
from the mother on the eighth day, taking nest and all. Prior to this, 
the food should consist of a paste composed of boiled rapeseed, the yolk 
of an egg, and crumbs of cake unsalted, mixed with a little water : this 
must be given every two hours. This paste ought not to be too wet, 
and must be renewed daily, until the nestlings can feed themselves. 
The hen has generally three broods in the year, but will hatch five 
times in the season, each time laying six eggs. 
The process of moulting, which takes place five or six weeks after 
they are hatched, is frequently fatal to them. The best remedy yet 
known is to put a small piece of iron into the water they drink, keeping 
them warm during the six weeks or two months which generally 
elapse before they regain their strength. This malady, to which they 
are all subject, is often fatal to the hen after the sixth or seventh year; 
and even the cock, though from superior strength he may recover, and 
continue occasionally to sing, and survive his mate four or five years, 
appears dull and melancholy from this period, till he gradually droops, 
and falls a victim to this evil. 
If it is proposed to rear gay birds, the cock and hen should be of the 
same deep colour ; if mottled birds are required, both parents should be 
mottled. When a gay bird and a fancy bird are matched, they are 
termed miile-birds, because they are irregularly mottled in their 
plumage, and therefore of no value, although they be equally good 
singers. The spangled or French Canary cock, with a meally hen, 
often produces beautiful varieties. 
The most common cause of disease in birds proceeds from a super- 
abundance of food, which brings on repletion. In this case the intestines 
descend to the extremities of the body, and appear through the skin, 
while the feathers on the part affected fall off, and the poor bird, after 
a few days, pines and dies. If the disease is not too far gone, putting 
