Especial care must be taken to keep the canary scrupulously clean. For this purpose, the cage should be strewed every morning with clean sand, or rather, fine gravel, for small pebbles are absolutely essential to life and health in cage birds; fresh water must be given every day, both for drinking and bathing; the latter being in a shallow vessel; and, during the moulting season, a small bit of iron should be put into the water for drinking. The food of a canary should consist principally of summer rape-seed, that is, of those small brown rape-seeds which are obtained from plants sown in the spring, and which ripen during the summer; large and black rape-seeds, on the contrary, are produced by such plants as are sown in autumn, and reaped in spring. A little chickweed in spring, lettuce-leaves in summer, and endive in autumn, with slices of sweet apple in winter, may be safely given, but bread and sugar ought to be generally avoided. Occasionally also, a few poppy or canary-seeds, and a small quantity of bruised hemp-seed may be added, but the last very sparingly. Cleanliness, simple food, and fresh but not cold air are essential to the well-being of a canary. During the winter, the cage should never be hung in a room without a fire, but even then, when the air is mild, and the sun shines bright, the little prisoner will be refreshed by having the window open. The cage should never be less than eight inches in diameter, and a foot high, with perches at different heights.