FANCIERS’ 
~ 
BREEDING CANARIES IN A ROOM UNCAGED. 
My little ones have some Canaries, and we have a spare 
attic facing due south. Will the canaries breed well flying 
about the room? How many hens may they put to each 
cock? Would it be advisable to put in linnets or goldfinches 
in with the canaries, or birds of any other sort? Would a 
small tree in the centre of the room be useful, and, if so, what 
sort would be the best? 
_ Kindly advise a family who, if such a thing is possible, are 
completely demoralized by those naughty men ‘ Wiltshire 
Rectors,’’ Mr. W. A. Blakiston, and other writers to papa’s 
first piece of reading, on getting off his journey, ‘‘ our jour- 
nal.”’—Sr. EDMUNDS. 
[Who that has children but would feel interested in the 
spare attic, facing due south, with its prospective pleasures ? 
It is quite refreshing after the turmoil of the exhibition sea- 
son to be asked such a string of interesting questions. They 
savor of .coming spring, fresh-turned earth, green moss, 
budding primroses and sweet-scented violets, warm sunshine 
and lengthening days; and they speak, too, of the early 
spring time of life, with its happy present and rosy future. 
May the lessons to be learned in the spare attic, its joys and 
sorrows, hopes fulfilled, and bitter disappointments, not be 
lost on ‘‘ my little ones.” 
The canaries will breed famously if turned loose in the 
room; and where no single variety is kept and no particular 
excellence aimed at, there is no better plan, or one more 
adapted to furnish the largest amount of pleasure at the 
smallest amount of trouble or expense. The bird has more 
scope for freedom of action in a room than in a box eighteen 
inches square, though he is as happy in the one as in the 
other, and his life approximates more nearly, yet still only 
very remotely, to what it is in an unconfined state. 
I would not like to say how many hens are the proper share 
for each cock in such an agapemone. Though, to some ex- 
tent, all things will be shared in common, yet each cock will 
pair with some particular hen and pay her special attention, 
at least till she is sitting, when the chances are he will court 
some new flame; but he will not neglect his first love, and 
will continue to feed her on the nest, though, under the cir- 
cumstances, he will become general in his attentions. And 
it is strange how hens in an aviary will sometimes behave. 
I have seen two sitting on the edge of the same nest feeding 
as assiduously as if each claimed the young ones for her own. 
Turn-in the stock at once, and see how things work. 
By all means introduce linnets (cocks), and goldfinches, 
either cocks or hens. Hen linnets will breed in rooms only 
under special treatment, and then very rarely; but a hen 
goldfinch will build, sit, hatch, and feed as well as a canary. 
The produce will be linnet and canary mules, and goldfinch 
and canary mules, and will in all probability be dark self- 
colored birds. The hens will be useless, but the cocks ex- 
cellent songsters. You might adda hen Bullfinch or two. 
There is no knowing where the blessing might fall. 
I would not confine myself to one tree in the centre, but 
place several round the walls. The best for the purpose are 
small fir trees (such as are used for Christmas trees), which 
can be got at any nursery, and, if carefully lifted and suit- 
ably potted, will remain fresh for a long time. The birds 
will pull them about, and by the end of the summer they 
will be done for, as they cannot be expected to put forth their 
new leaves under such circumstances. If, in addition to 
these, you can get any old roots, or any such rough material, 
JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 

; 41] 
to place against or hang on the wall, you will find the birds 
will soon select the snug corners. and begin to build. Give 
a supply of moss, soft hay, any bunch of fibrous roots you 
may meet with, or similar material (with which they will 
build the foundation of their nests), and plenty of soft doe- 
hair, which you can get—I don’t know where. We get it 
from the carpet factories. Add some rabbit-down, with 
which they will put the finishing touch to a nest, which will 
make “my little ones’ look on with amazement, and won- 
der how such an article can be fabricated from such materials 
without hands. 
Having got thus far, notice when any hen is beginning to 
build; then sit quietly down in a corner and watch the oper- 
ation. She will not at all object to your company. When 
you have a nest of eggs send the announcement to 171 Fleet 
Street, and I will do my best to show you how to rear the 
young ones.—W. A. BLAKISTON, in Journal of Horticulture. | 



Items. 
In order to make our “Item” column as interesting as possible, we 
would be obliged to our readers for contributions of original matter, how- 
ever short—yes, let it be condensed and to the point, in a variety of 
style—facts and fancies interesting to fanciers. 
pes- A minister at Colquitt, Ga., recently christened his 
thirty-second child. 
pas’ H. L. Ebson, of Parryville, Carbon county, has a 
daughter, who, at the time of her birth, weighed only three 
and a half pounds. The infant is living, and is perfectly 
healthy. 
n@gs> The following epitaph on a tombstone in a grave- 
yard on the eastern shore of Maryland, touchingly com- 
memorates the sad fate of a husband, and the sorrow of his 
afflicted widow :— 
“ Almira, sorrowing, rears this marble slab 
To her dear Ike, who died of eating crab.” 
peg A lady formerly living at New Bedford, was stand- 
ing on a wharf in New York, the other day, bidding adieu 
to friends about to sail for New Bedford, when the head of 
a huge cask of molasses that was being hoisted on an eleva- 
tor above her burst out, and she was deluged with the sweet, 
sticky fluid. Any gallant remarks to her about ‘sweet- 
ness’? now, are said to be not very highly appreciated. 
y@s~ Coase or A Horsr.—Recently, says the Detroit 
Free Press, as the engineer of the morning passenger train 
going west on the Detroit and Milwaukee Road had reached 
a point three miles beyond the Junction, he saw a horse on 
the track ahead. He ‘‘ tooted”’ at the animal, but the horse 
waited until the locomotive was at his heels, and then turned 
andran. The bell rang and the whistle screamed, but the 
horse kept the track for a full mile, and then leaped off and 
let the iron monster rush past him. He was there next 
morning to repeat the same operation, and continued it 
with the greatest regularity, until Wednesday morning; he 
then extended the race further than usual, being in unusually 
good spirits. Coming to a cattle guard, he hesitated an 
instant before making the jump, and the cow-catcher caught 
him. He was in the air making the leap when he was 
struck, and thrown as high as the smoke-stack, but came 
down in a pond of water, and was seen to jump up and gal- 
lop off as if unhurt. 
