as to food, etc.. were diainetrically opposed to what we 

 are taught by our pastors and masters in aviculture; his 

 manner was brusque to a degree; and he showed a 

 curious irritability and excitability ; but he li/J know a 

 lot about l:»irds, there was no disputing that. 



At last he said to me suddenly, " I will show you 

 something worth seeing. Come this way." He took 

 me up a rickety flight of stairs into tlie front room over 

 the shop. The room was full of all kinds of lumber, 

 but the only bird cage in it which I could see was a 

 large waggon-shapeil cage on a table in the window. In 

 this cage, on a very thin perch, was a tiny bird of the 

 most dazzling metallic green. The wings seemed dark 

 brown ; there was a white patch at the back of the neck ; 

 and some white in the tail. The beak was very long and 

 slender. When we went near the cage, the little creature 

 left the perch, and hovered in the air in the cage. Tlie 

 wings moved so rapidly as to be invisible except as an 

 indistinct blurr in the air. 



I am not an extravagant man in most things, but 

 a very rare bird is a sore temptation to me. I no sooner 

 saw this gem than I i)urned to possess it. Its owner 

 named his price and stuck to it, and I had to agree to 

 his terms. I began to wonder how my purchase was to 

 be transferred from the large cage to a travelling cage. 

 " You leave that to me," said the crusty vendor of Ijirds. 

 He found a box cage, and a small net. 1 suggested that 

 it would be wise to close the wiutlow before he opened 

 the cage door, and was of course severely snubbed for 

 my pains. He opened the cage door and introduced 

 the net, biit before he had time to try to caich the bird 

 there was a flash of metallic colour towards the window, 

 a shrill, whirring whistle, and then nothing! Well, 

 nothing but language. 



I found it advisable to leave at once. (Xo, I didn't 

 forget the mealworms.) I hailed a passing cab at the 

 end of the street and was some distance on my way 

 home before I remembered that I did not know the 



name of the old bird-dealer, nor the name of the street 



