The Biography of a Canary-Blrd 



Hy Joseph Grinnell 



Sing away, aye, sing away, 



Merry little bird, 

 Always gayest of the gay, 

 Though a woodland roundelay 



You ne'er sung nor heard ; 

 Though your life from youth to age 

 Passes in a narrow cage. 



Near the window wild birds fly, 



Trees are waving round ; 

 Fair things everywhere you spy 

 Through the glass pane's mystery, 



Your small life's small bound 

 Nothing hinders your desire 

 But a little gilded wire. 



Mrs. Craik. 



He didn't look very much like a bird, being mostly a big little stomach, as 

 bare of feathers as a beechnut just out of the burr, with here and there on the 

 head and back a tuft of down. His eyelids bulged prominently, but did not 

 open, sight being unnecessary in consideration of the needs of his large stomach. 

 Said needs were partially satisfied every few minutes with the nursing-bottle. 



And a very primitive nursing-bottle it was, being no other than the beak of 

 the parent bird thrust far down the little throat, as is the family custom of the 

 rest of the finches. 



From somewhere in the breast of the mother a supply was always forth- 

 coming, and found its way down the tiny throat of the baby and into the depths 

 of its pudgy being. This food, which was moist and smooth, was very nour- 

 ishing indeed, and sweet as well, for it tasted good, and left such a relish in the 

 mouth that said mouth always opened of itself when the mother bird came near. 

 But no more than its own share of the victuals did Dicky get, though he did his 

 very best to have it all. There were other babies in the same cradle to be looked 

 after and fed. And they all five were as much alike as five peas, excepting that 

 Dicky was the smallest of all and was kept pushed well down in the bottom of 

 the nest. This did not prevent his mother from noticing his open mouth when 

 it came his turn to be fed. 



Canary mothers have sharp eyes ; so have canary fathers, as will be seen. 



Now, when this particular pair of birds began to look about the cage for a 

 good place to fix upon for family afifairs, some kind hand from outside fastened 

 a little round basket in one corner, exactly of the right sort to stimulate nesting 



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