18 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



excess of joy, hopping wildly about in his cage, calling 

 loudly in response to the wild birds in the trees, and 

 from time to time bursting out in song: not the 

 three or four to half a dozen notes the cardinal usually 

 emits, but a continuous torrent, like the soaring 

 lark's, so that those who heard it marvelled and 

 exclaimed that they had never known a cardinal with 

 such a song. I can say for myself that I have, since 

 then, listened to the singing of hundreds of cardinals, 

 both wild and caged, and never heard one with a 

 song so passionate and sustained. 



So it went on from day to day, until the vine- 

 leaves, grown large, spread a green roof to keep the 

 hot sun from him — a light roof of leaves which, stirred 

 by the wind, still let the sparkling sunbeams fall 

 through to enliven him, while outside the sheltering 

 vines the bright world was all before him. If any 

 person, even the wisest, had then told mc that my 

 cardinal was not the happiest bird in the world — that 

 not being free to fly he could not be as happy as 

 others — I should not have believed it; consequently 

 it came as a shock to me when one day I discovered 

 the cage empty — that my cardinal had made his 

 escape! The cage, as I have said, was large, and the 

 wires were so far apart that a bird the size of a linnet 

 or siskin could not have been confined in it; but 

 for the larger cardinal it was a safe prison. Unfor- 

 tunately one of the wires had become loose — perhaps 

 the bird had loosened it — and by working at it he had 

 succeeded in bending it and finally had managed to 

 squeeze through and make his escape. Running out 



