As soon as the young break the shell, two jars should be placed near the feeding-trough. In one of these there should be a quarter of a herd egg, yolk and white together, chopped very fine, with a bit of crumb of white bread or biscuit, which has been soaked in water, and afterwards well pressed to get out the moisture. In the other jar rape-seed, well boiled and then washed in fresh water, should be placed ; great care must be taken not to let this food become sour, which would destroy the neetlinga. The cock-bird is the principal nurse after hatching.
It is sometimes necessary to bring up the young by hand, and then a p&ste should be made of white bread or biscuit pounded very fine, rapeseed well bruised, a small quantity of the yolk of an egg, and water. The nestlings must be fed with a quill cut into the shape of a spoon, and should not have less than ten or twelve meals a day; four beaksful well piled up on the quill constitute a meal. On the thirteenth day they will begin to feed themselVes, and in four weeks they may be removed to other cages. Care however must be taken to supply them for some time with the paste above described, together with the food of full-grown birds, as a sudden privation of the former has been known frequently to occasion death; especially if the nestlings are deprived of it when moulting.
Mr. Rennie says, " It sometimes happens in very dry seasons that the feathers of the young birds cannot develop naturally ; a bath of tepid water, employed on such an occasion by Madame was so successful, that I cannot do better than recommend it. The same lady succeeded equally well in similar circumstances in hatching late eggs ; she plunged them for some minutes in water heated to the degree of incubation, and immediately replaced them under the mother ; in a short time she enjoyed the pleasure of seeing the little ones make their appearance. This interesting experiment may be applied to all sorts of birds, and may be particularly useful in regard to those of the poultry-yard." About the thirteenth or fourteenth day, by which time the nestlings can eat alone, the males begin to warble and so do some of the females, but in a more disjointed style. The males, which may then be easily distinguished, should be forthwith separated, each bird being placed in a cage by himself (which must be first covered with a piece of linen and afterwards with a darker curtain) apart from every other bird, in order that his education may begin, if it is intended that his natural song should be superseded by an artificial melody ; if he is left unseparated beyond the fourteenth day he will retain a portion of his father's song, and murder his acquired melody by intermingling the paternal notes. His musical lesson must be repeated five or six times in the day, especially in the morning and evening, his master performing the desired air either on a flageolet or a bird-organ ; but, as has been observed iu the case of the bullfinch, if the instrument be not in perfect tune the whistling of a man of taste is infinitely preferable. From two to six months, according to the memory and the abilities of the scholar, will be spent in this musical education. Some canaries have been thus taught to repeat correctly two or three airs, and others have learned to pronounce distincly a few short words ; for they possess great quickness and correctness of ear, and have excellent memories.
When the more natural song is preferred, those canaries are most esteemed which introduce into their warblings the notes of the night ingale, wood-lark, or tit-lark, and this may be easily accomplished by placing those birds near the young canaries. The canaries of the Tyrol are more frequently taught to introduce the notes of the night ingale, while those of England more frequently interweave those of the wood-lark. " In Thuringia," says Bechstein, "the preference is generally given to those which, instead of a succession of noisy bursts, know how, with n silvery sonorous voice, to descend regularly through all the tones of the octave, introducing from time to time the sound of a trumpet There are some males which, especially in the pairing season, sing with so much strength and ardour, that they burst the delicate vessels of the lungs and die suddenly." Canaries may be made to sing In the night—some do this of their own accord. The tuition must commence early in their youth by covering the cage, and this keeping them in the dark during the day long enough for them to be hungry ; they aro thus brought to feed by candle-light, and at last sing. The hen birds will Also sing, particularly in the spring, but in an unconnected style. Old liens past breeding will often sing in this way the year round.
• There are societies in London for promoting the breeding of Canaries, and amateurs distinguish upwards of thirty varieties.
Mr. Rennie mentions two sorts of Canaries, "the plain and variegated, or as they are technically called, the gay spangles or mealy, and jonks or jonquil/I. These two varieties are more esteemed than any of the numerous varieties which have sprung from them; and although birds of different feathers have their admirers, some preferring beauty of plumage, others excellence of song, certainly that bird is most cleanable where both are combined. The first property of these birds consists in the cap, which ought to be of fine orange-colour, pervading every part of the body except the tail and wings, and possessing the utmost regularity, without any black feathers, as by the smallest speck it loses the property of a show bird, and is con sidered a broken-cepped bird. The second property consists in the feathers of the wing and tail being of a deep-black up to the quill, as a single white feather in the wing or tail causes it to be termed n foul bird; the requisite number of those feathers in each wing is 13, and in the tail 12. It is however frequently observed that the best coloured birds aro foul in one or two feathers, which reduces their value, although they may still be matched to breed with." These form the leading feature* of excellence; but it is generally the custom of the societies above mentioned to award the prize to the competitor who produces a bird nearest to the model published by them the season prior to that wherein the competitors are to show for the prize. The fullest information on the subject of breeding and treating the Canary will be found in Bechatein's Cage-Birds.