Ladies' Column. Care of Canaries.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2021, 20 June 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Ladies' Column. Care of Canaries.

Tiirc first thing necessary in talking caro of birds, as in vxoa other thiDgi, is comtm n sense. Get a medium-d/ed C3g2, if you h&va but one bird. Don't keep your bud in a little bit or a cage. Let him have room to cxeroiiti. Whonevcr I sco a bird in a liulo cage I wiuh the owner might change places w'th the poor thing awhile. For convenience in olpaniag always keep paper in the bottom of the caga, and sand too when it is obtainable. It ktopi their feet from being sore. Every morning put in clean paper and said and give cold freah water; also till op toe seed cups. < Lett them have a bath every day if they will use.it. Sometimes they will not go in, atid they should be taken in the hand and war-had. They will soon learn to prefer bathing themselves, and will go in without help. Wanh the cages all over at least once a week, and the perches and swing about onioe in two days. Besides seed, give them to e*t outtlebone, a pieco of which should always hang in the cage, a piece of boiled egg, or a cracker occasionally. Peppergrass every day if it can be found, if not, lettuce, cress, plantain seed ; in fact, almost anything green that is not poisonous, they will eat. Mine even eat fuchsia and rose leaves when they can get at them. If your house plants aro troubled with plant lice let your canaries loose in the rodm where they are. The birds are very fond of the insects. Let your birds out in the room every f«w days to exercise their winga. If you wunt them tame enough to catch easily you will have to handle them a great deal while they are young, even before they kaye the noft. I find it impossible to tame old birds that have never been petted. Never having had a siok bird, I oannot give any euros for thtir diseases. Some write of their canaries ptrforming tricks. I never had one that would do much of that. I had one, though, the tamest little mite, that would perch on my finger and take food from my hand, and at night he would go to sleep perched on a finger. lie used to hop up the fingers of my hand laddeiwise. To raise birds have a large cage for your pair of birds ; the double ones are perhaps best, but they are expensive. Mako a nest of a collar box or the end of a bird teed box, cut long enough to leave it about square. Line this with cloth, but do not put anything else in. The birds will do that. Put a few ravelh'ngs and small pieces of paper and rags in the cage, and the birds will arrange it to suit themselves. The bird will commence setting as soon as the first «gg is laid. Thoy will commence hatching in about thirteen days. In about four wecki they will be in full feather, and oommencw to try to sing in about six. For feed for the little birds, take half the yoke of a boiled egg and a cracker or tjwo crumbed fine, mix thif, and add a bit of water to make it stick together. Fill half an egg shell with this, and pat it in tho cage. Both birds will feed the little ones. Lefcvo fcecd in the cage all the time, and th» little birds will soon learn to eat it. Do not hang your birds out in the wind, especially the young ones, ifang them out on the {porch in the summer time, but Dot whore the sun strikes full on the cage. Juet a lew minutes in the hot sunshine will came a canary to open its mouth and gasp for breath. And do not leave them out-doors at night. — The JFovuhold.