THE CANARY. 
will frequently eat their eggs. The only way to prevent this 
is to replenish the food-box over night, as the first thing the 
hen does after laying an egg is to see about her breakfast. If 
she doesn’t find it she may get into a rage, and destroy all the 
eggs she has laid. If, however, your canary be an incorrigible 
egg smasher, you had better purchase half a dozen ivory eggs, 
and each time she lays, the genuine egg must be removed and 
a fictitious one substituted. When she has done laying, you 
must restore to her her eggs and. chance all the rest. If you 
store eggs in this way it is best to keep them in a warm corner 
in dry silver sand. If possible, however, it is much the better 
plan to leave the birds to them own devices ; indeed, if you 
should have a hen that cannot be trusted with her eggs, you had 
better get rid of her. 
At the expiration of the thirteen days the birth of as many 
little canaries as there were eggs in the nest will reward your 
care. Then boil a chicken’s egg till it is hard, cut it up fine, 
and add to it part of a roll that has been soaked for a few 
minutes in water, and then squeezed dry. With this mess, 
the birds (or rather the cock -bird, for on him the duty of 
feeding the children devolves), will feed the little ones. Never 
mix more than a tablespoonful of this food at a time, for if it is 
allowed to go the least sour, you will certainly have to mourn 
your young canaries. 
If through some acccident the little birds should be left 
orphans, it is possible to bring them up by hand. Keep the 
nest as warm as possible ; grate up a plain biscuit, and pound 
some hemp-seed ; mix the two together, and, moistened with 
a little raw yolk of egg and water, drop morsels into them 
gaping mouths with the end of a quill. This must be done 
once every hour, from six in the morning till six in the evening. 
The quantity administered to each at a meal should not exceed 
a third of a teaspoonful. 
In a fortnight the young birds will be able to shift without 
their parents, £nd to feed themselves. When they are a month 
old you may take them out of the breeding-cage. Do not, 
however, entirely discontinue the soft food. It should, for at 
least five weeks longer, be mixed with the usual food of old 
birds. A sudden substitution of solid food for the softer sort 
may occasion constipation and death. 
Mules. — The most favourite hybrid or “ mule,” as it is 
called, is a cross between the goldfinch and the canary ; and 
a male bird of the former sort mated with a female of the latter, 
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