A Seeker after Bird Marts. 167 



et^i^. The youni^ bird was well feathered and well grown, but 

 for some reason seemed extremely weak and hardly able to 

 walk or fly. It is possible that it injured itself in its first use 

 of its wini^s. I did not think it would li\e. but latner to my 

 surprise it has improved steadily. At the time of writin,^ 

 ( .-\u,L;nst; 4th) it can walk well, climb very fairly, and is begin- 

 ning;" to fly with increasing strength, and cannot very readily 

 1 e distinguished from its mother. The parents still seem fond 

 of it, although they are in full moult; indeed the old cock is 

 much fonder of liis child than of his wife, for he never attempts 

 :o hurt the former, while the latter he chivies and bullies with 

 renewed zest ; one would expect her to be glad when I turn 

 him out again, but last year she rather missed him and was 

 cjuite unhappy — there is no accounting for tastes, either in man 

 or bird ! 



A 



A Seeher after Bird Marts. 



By Mrs. U. Dickinson. 



I wonder if anyone shares my hobby, so amusing and 

 instructive to myself, and so distressing and irksome to my 

 companions, of setting out, immediately that one arrives in a 

 new country, or one's ship touches briefly at a hitherto unknown 

 port, in search of the Bird Shops. 



This apparently harmless occupation takes an astonishing- 

 hold on you, as you develop a strange skill and secret satisfaction 

 in learning how to meet and overcome the reluctance of hotel 

 authorities, chief stewards, butchers, etc., on ships, railway 

 employees, and one's travelling companions, to housing, putting 

 up with, carrying about, and finding rare foods for, the extra- 

 ordinary collection you joyfully bring from the birdshops. 



It is great fun, for you never know whether you will find 

 that there is no such thing as a bird shop, and that birds are 

 even seldom offered in the market places, or that there is a 

 whole " Street of the Birdsellers," as we found in Calcutta, 

 where the variety of birds, and the noise, was so confusing that 

 I feel sure I missed the best ones, through being dazed and 

 exhausted with choosing. There at least eight merchants 



were clamouring for your notice, thrusting reluctant parrakeets. 



