286 The Irish Naturalist, 



MY BIRDS. 



BY RKV. THOMAS B. GIBSON, M.A. 



Perhaps no one ever commenced aviary-keeping for such a 

 reason as I did, sometime in the spring of 1889. Of course as 

 a boy, I had the usual amount of successes, and perhaps more 

 than the usual amount of failures with bird-pets ; but aviary- 

 keeping was not my particular boyish hobby. No doubt I had 

 reared, and educated in mischief, many jack-daws and magpies 

 till complaisance could go no farther ; and, one after another, 

 pets of this kind were either banished or came to an untimely 

 end. A Pigeon, whose greatest delight was in pecking at the 

 toes of my younger brothers and sisters whenever an oppor- 

 tunity oflfered itself, was on this account exiled, to my great 

 distress. But of all my favourites, a pair of Sparrow-hawks, 

 which I had reared from the downy state, after an exciting 

 contest with the parent birds, which ended in my being pre- 

 cipitated, together with nest and young ones, from a fir-tree, 

 were the most valued. These I had kept for fully two years^ 

 and one of the pair was so tame that it would come out with 

 me and hawk for sparrows, returning to me even after a suc- 

 cessful flight. This tame one was killed by a young colt 

 which was being weaned in the stable where I kept the birds. 

 The other made its escape from my mother's hands whilst 

 she was showing it to a visitor ; and, though for a whole year 

 it continually returned to the neighbourhood, it would never 

 allow itself to be recaptured. A Song-thrush, too, for some 

 time proved a most interesting pet, and would usually come 

 at my call ; but one day, whilst I was digging for worms to 

 go a-bobbing for eels, I accidentally struck it with the spade, 

 and so ended its existence. Starlings were also very easily 

 brought up by hand, but they usually took " French leave " 

 before the year was out, or at any rate during the following 

 spring. Indeed why so many birds remained with me for as 

 long as they did, in those days, is now a wonder to me, since, 

 as a boy, I never used cages to confine the nestlings, nor was 

 I either, as far as I can remember, a very attentive caretaker. 

 These boyish attempts at bird-keeping, however, exercised no 

 great influence upon me, and when I did start an aviary it 

 came about unintentionall}'-, in this way. One of my pupils 



