Mule 
Breeding. 
(103) THE BIRD WORLD. 
and his half-brother. He was rather a 
weakly bird, and did not live much 
more than a year. As soon as he at¬ 
tained to his adult plumage there was 
not the slightest doubt about his being 
a Redpoll and not a hybrid. “ Pet” 
was the only hen, and was a most en¬ 
gaging little bird; her head and back 
were brown like a Redpoll’s, but on the 
breast, wings, and tail there was a faint 
tinge of green, and there was no doubt 
that she (as well as “ Plucky ”) was a 
Siskin-Redpoll hybrid. 
She and a cock Canary, with whom 
she was brought up, were much attached 
to each other, and one spring she built 
a nest and laid two tiny eggs about 
three-eighths of an inch long, which, of 
course, did not hatch; but it was very 
pretty to see the little creature on her 
nest, with the large yellow Canary feed¬ 
ing her. She, like “ Plucky,” did not 
live to complete her fifth year. 
Siskin and Redpoll Mules. 
I never found any difficulty in rearing 
these delightful little birds—the cross 
between the Siskin and Canary. They 
were always charmingly tame, and had 
only one fault—greediness, inherited 
from their Siskin father. They were 
bred in a large-sized breeding cage, with 
wired top and sides. I do not like the 
box-shaped breeding cages at all; the 
birds do not get enough air when a cage 
of that sort is used. 
I only once paired a cock Redpoll 
and hen Canary, and I had no success 
with them, as the only young bird that 
was hatched had a deformed beak, and 
after a little while the mother seemed 
to be disgusted with its appearance, and 
refused to feed it; but it lived long 
enough for me to see that it would have 
had a yellow breast and brown head 
and back, so no doubt it would have 
been an attractive little bird. 
Goldfinch Mules. 
These mules are by far the most 
generally admired, and are no doubt 
much more handsome than any of the 
others. Some people find great diffi¬ 
culty in rearing them, because of the 
tiresome habit that the Goldfinch has of 
pecking the eggs as soon as they are 
laid; but I must have been fortunate 
in this respect, for out of the five or six 
Goldfinches that I have had there was 
only one that could have been accused 
of pecking one of the eggs, and even 
in that case I am not sure it was not 
the hen Canary that pecked it. 
I have always been very desirous of 
obtaining a good light Goldfinch Mule, 
and I have spent a good deal of time 
and money in the endeavour; but I am 
obliged to admit (as so many others 
have done) that after all there is a good 
deal of chance about it, although, of 
course, you do have a better chance if 
you get the right sort of parents. Many 
years ago I gave a guinea for a Gold¬ 
finch that was reputed to be the father 
of Light Mules, and his children cer¬ 
tainly were variegated, and one of them 
was a beauty with a great deal of white 
about it; but none of them could be 
called Light Mules, although an an¬ 
cestor of the Canary’s had been the 
mother of perfectly clear Mules. 
Not Fashionably Bred. 
Then on another occasion, from a 
hen Canary with no illustrious ancestors, 
I bred much handsomer Mules, one with 
a perfectly clear yellow breast and a 
little crest on the head, as the mother 
was a crested Canary. After in-breed¬ 
ing for many years, I produced the year 
before last a hen Canary that I thought 
really did look likely to be the mother 
of Light Mules. She was nearly white, 
except for cinnamon markings on head 
and wings, and, of course, with pink 
eyes. Great was the excitement last 
summer when, after two nests of empty 
eggs, one young Goldfinch Mule was 
hatched, but I must say, notwithstand¬ 
ing all the hopes raised by her mother’s 
lovely appearance and pedigree, “ Ena ” 
is a very ordinary little dark Mule, and 
her only charms are her extreme docility 
and intelligence. And now I come to 
the last Mule whose history I have to 
relate. 
