Gleanings on 
the Yorkshire, 
(71) THE BIRD WORLD. 
give changes. I have in my room at the 
present time an old bird which would 
soon die if kept on a diet of plain canary 
seed. It may be that he is old and 
requires extra stimulating food to keep 
him up to par. For some time he was 
very poorly. I dosed him with castor 
oil and salts, gave him tonics and milk 
sop—in fact, everything I could think of, 
)ut he got gradually worse, and for three 
days he could not take the perches. At 
last, I was speaking to a friend about 
him, and told him how puzzled I was 
what to do for the bird. He advised me 
to crush some hemp and give him. Well, 
he was on the perch next day, and has 
gone on well ever since. I have at pre¬ 
sent a nest of full eggs from him. 1 
have also a Border hen at the present 
time which needs a lot of stimulating 
food. If kept on plain diet she would 
die. Thus, although it may be wise to 
keep most of your birds on a very plain 
diet, there are some which from the 
nature of their constitution require more 
stimulating food than others, and for 
the bulk of the stock I would certainly 
advise frequent changes. If you don’t 
give them too much, there is no fear of 
them taking any harm. 
Care of the Young. 
I have tried all methods of feeding the 
young, yet I cannot say that I have been 
very successful. Egg and bread, egg 
and biscuit, hemp, various green foods 
such as lettuce, dandelion, chickweed, 
watercress—in fact, everything that I 
have seen recommended. Last season I 
never put egg food into the same vessel 
twice, still I could not rear anything 
like the number I should have done—in 
fact, I did not average two chicks per 
hen, and from many I did not rear any 
at all—they generally died at a week 
to ten days old. This season I am try¬ 
ing Mr. J. Robson’s plan. I will give 
it to you,— 
“ Commence to give a little egg food 
on the thirteenth day, as if the hen has 
been sitting close the young will in all 
probability be hatched by then. In fact, 
when the weather is warm, it is quite a 
common occurrence for birds to be 
hatched in twelve days with a close¬ 
sitting hen, I give the yolk of egg only, 
mixed with biscuit or home-made bread¬ 
crumbs—two parts egg to one part 
powdered biscuit or bread—for the first 
three days with hemp and German rape 
seed added to the canary. After the 
third day give the yolk and white com¬ 
bined with the biscuit, and continue it 
until the young birds are reared, increas¬ 
ing the supply daily as well as the hemp 
seed as the birds get older. Never 
crush the hemp for the old birds, as it 
keeps the hen longer off the nest shelling 
it, and allows the air to get to the young, 
which is very beneficial and strengthen¬ 
ing to them. On the third day also 
commence to give a little watercress, and 
continue to increase the quantity daily .” 
I will give you another extract from 
Mr. Robson on weaning the young. 
Diet for Young Birds when Leaving 
Barents . 
“ Young birds first commencing to feed 
themselves should have the egg food for 
the first week the same strength as you 
have been giving the old birds to feed 
with, after which time the egg should be 
gradually reduced and more biscuit 
added until you have worked them en¬ 
tirely on to biscuit. Then you should 
by degrees reduce the supply of crushed 
biscuit until you have gradually weaned 
them altogether on to seed. Crushed or 
scalded seed should be given. I prefer 
the former until they can crack it for 
themselves, which they generally do 
about six weeks old.” 
I may say that I give lunch biscuits, 
for the reason that when I add a little 
water to moisten the egg food it does not 
go sticky, but remains in a crumbly state. 
I find the birds take the egg food better 
when slightly moistened. 
Training Needful. 
If you are successful in rearing a few 
Yorkshires the next thing to consider is 
the steadying and training. A wild 
bird stands no chance beside one that 
is steady. Mr. Hadwin told the mem¬ 
bers of the Newcastle Society last year 
a very good method of getting the young 
birds steady. He runs them into a 
spraying cage, gives them a little spray 
