3950. Canaries become delicate and feeble from improper treatment. Their docility, beautiful plumage, and sweetness of notes render them general favorites. When young, feed on a paste made by bruising rape-seed, blowing the chaff away, mixed with pieces of bread powdered. Give a teaspoonful with a little hard egg and a few drops of water, when turning sour, mix fresh. Add, as they grow older, scalded rape-seed without bruising, chopped almond and chickweed, in hot weather, twice a day.
3951. If sick, give milk of hemp-seed, made by bruising clean seed and straining it through linen into water, taking the water-glass away from the sick. As they advance in age, give rape and canary, and occasionally bruised hemp-seed, taking the soft food away by degrees. Cuttle-fish bone is preferable to loaf-sugar. Cakes, apples, berries, bread soaked, the water squeezed out and milk added, are good, and cabbage occasionally, when in season, is excellent.
3952. Perches should be round and strong without crevices or shoulders for insects to breed or harbor, and every corner of the cage should be brushed out and kept thoroughly clean.
3953. The claws are sometimes so long as to occasion accidents by catching in the wires; in which case trim them.
Mortar placed in the cage facilitates the production of eggs.