THE EAGLE AND THE CANARY 217 



more. But at the rate they are devouring their 

 green stuff there will not be a leat, scarcely a stem 

 left in another hour; and then.-* Why, then they 

 will have the naked wires of their cage all round 

 them to protect them from the cat and for 

 hunger there will be seed in the box. 



After all, then, what a little I have been able 

 to do! But I flatter myself that if they were 

 mine I should do more. I never keep captive 

 birds, but if they were given to me, and I could 

 not refuse, I should do a great deal more for 

 them. All my knowledge of their ways and their 

 requirements would teach me how to make their 

 caged existence less unlike the old natural life, 

 than it now is. To begin the ameliorating 

 process, I should place them in a large cage, 

 large enough to allow space for flight, so that they 

 might fly to and fro, a few feet each way, and 

 rest their little feet from continual perching. 

 That would enable them to exercise their most 

 important muscles and experience once more, al- 

 though in a very limited degree, the old delicious 

 sensation of gliding at will through the void air. 

 The wires of their new cage would be of brass 

 or of some bright metal, and the wooden parts 



