THE EAGLE AND THE CANARY 215 



wants, might remove this reproach, and silence 

 these vague suggestions of a too fastidious con- 

 science, I have taken the trouble to add something 

 to the seed with which these little prisoners had 

 been supplied. For we give sweetmeats to the 

 child that cries for the moon — an alternative 

 which often acts beneficially — and there is noth- 

 ing more to be done. Any one of us, even a 

 philosopher, would think it hard to be restricted 

 to dry bread only, yet such a punishment would 

 be small compared with that which we, in our 

 ignorance or want of consideration, inflict on our 

 caged animals — our pets on compulsion. Small, 

 because an almost infinite variety of flavours 

 drawn from the whole vegetable kingdom — a 

 hundred flavours for every one in the dietary 

 which satisfies our heavier mammalian natures — is 

 a condition of the little wild bird's existence and 

 essential to its well-being and perfect happiness. 

 And so, to remedy this defect, I went out into 

 the garden, and with seeding grasses and pungent 

 buds, and leaves of a dozen different kinds, I 

 decorated the cage until it looked less like a prison 

 than a bower. And now for an hour the little 

 creatures have been busy with their varied green 



