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Birds and Flowers . 
CHAPTER V. 
CANARIES AND NESTLINGS. 
Who does not like a bright yellow-dressed Canary, 
with its joyous song and its determined manner of 
making itself attended to ? And where we want 
to have nests, nothing is like Canaries. I have 
known them build five or six times one year, and 
the little nestlings quite overrun the cage. 
The winter or early spring is the best time to 
set up Canaries — from November onwards they 
may be bought very well. It is a difficult business, 
however, to choose a real good bird ; you hear six 
or eight singing against each other, and the real 
fact is, you get too much deafened to know very 
well which is which. For singing birds I think 
that the little Germans are a great deal the 
sweetest, but they are very small, and some people 
call them stumpy. Be that how it may, they are 
by far the cleverest, and I think the most amusing. 
These are not however so good as hardier kinds, 
if you want your birds to build well. A pair of 
Norwich Canaries would then be your best. And 
you had better be careful not to have two crested 
