i8 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



town life, and was now in a world of greenest grass and 

 foliage, wide blue skies, and brightest sunshine for the 

 first time. By day his cage was hung under the grape- 

 vines outside the veranda ; there the warm fragrant wind 

 blew on him and the sun shone down through the 

 translucent red and green young vine-leaves. He was 

 mad with 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 me 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; con- 

 sequently 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 



