Canary 
Breeding. 
(121) THE BIRD WORLD. 
intention of trying to breed some prize 
birds. 
In Real Karnest. 
1 thoroughly cleaned out my breeding 
cage, which I had used the previous 
season, filled up the cracks and crevices 
with a mixture of glue and white lead, 
made a nursery cage out of a Quaker 
oats box, and painted the insides of 
both with two coats of light blue enamel. 
My cages being Yeady, I enquired at the 
next meeting where I could get a good 
pair of birds cheap, and by the beginning 
of May I was the proud possessor of a 
pair of high-class Yorkshires. I used 
builders’ washed sand (which can be 
obtained for about 8d. per bushel) for 
the cage bottoms, removed the refuse, 
sprinkled the trays with clean sand every 
morning, and gave a fresh supply once a 
week. I put water in one hopper, and 
in the other some of Hyde’s grit mixed 
with plenty of crushed eggshell. I kept 
a piece of cuttlefish between the wires, 
and gave the seed in a small trough 
inside the cage, so as not to have too 
much mess in my bedroom. I fed the 
birds on the best Spanish canary seed, 
with the addition every other day of half 
a teaspoonful of German summer rape, 
and a mixture of hemp, niger, linseed, 
and maw once a week. I also gave a 
piece of sweet apple or a little egg food 
(consisting of hard-boiled egg cut up 
and pressed through a piece of per¬ 
forated zinc, and mixed with an equal 
quantity of powdered Osborne biscuit) 
on the day that they had the plain seed. 
I hung on the bath every morning, 
except when the weather was very damp. 
Building Preparations. 
When the birds had settled down, I 
put in a nest pan lined with swansdown, 
hung up a bundle of nesting material, 
and when the nest was made well 
peppered it with Keating’s powder. I 
took away the eggs each morning, and 
replaced them in the evening of the 
third day, while the hen was sitting 
gave only plain canary seed, and did not 
let her bathe until three days before the 
eggs were due to hatch, so that the 
dampness from her body would help to 
soften the skin inside the eggs, and so 
assist the young to get out. On the 
evening before they hatched I placed the 
eggs in a clean nest, which I had made 
myself, and gave the birds a little hemp 
seed and egg food. After they hatched 
I gave yolk of egg and biscuit for the 
first three days, and after that the white 
as well as the yolk of the egg mixed 
with biscuit fresh twice daily, and in 
addition to the canary and rape seed gave 
a good supply of hemp. When the 
youngsters were seven days old I rung 
them, and placed them in a clean nest, 
where I let them stay for another week, 
then took it away and gave them crushed 
hemp seed mixed with the egg food. 
Preparing for Moult. 
When the hen showed signs of want¬ 
ing to nest again, I placed the young 
birds on the other side of the wired 
partition, gave them—in addition to the 
egg food and crushed hemp—a supply 
of canary and rape seed. When I saw 
them cracking seed, I gradually stopped 
the egg food, and placed them in the 
“ Quaker oats ” cage, where I kept 
them until they began tounoult. Then I 
placed the best birds in separate cages, 
and gave them a little colour feed mixed 
with egg food every morning, and a good 
supply of linseed mixed with the 
canary and rape. I also put a little 
iron in the drinking water about twice a 
week. I had in all seven cocks and 
four hens from this pair of birds, and 
only one hen died. I entered three 
cocks for the City and Suburban Annual 
Show, two of which took second and 
third prizes, and the other—who had 
broken a blood-vessel when being 
washed—did not get anything, as he 
sat humpy during the show, but the 
very next morning was whistling like 
steam. Now I have related my first ex¬ 
periences in this fascinating hobby, the 
veriest amateur will realise that with a 
little care and attention his most 
sanguine hopes will be fulfilled, and a 
minimum of labour will produce a 
harvest of reward. 
