154 Bird- Lore 



I have seen that done. I had found four young Linnets, half-grown, some 

 cruel boys had taken from their nest and left on the sidewalk to die, and, 

 not knowing what to do with them, decided to put them in the aviary and 

 see what would happen. What did happen was a great surprise. First one 

 Canary and then another flew down. Peep! peep! the young called, but 

 received nothing. The young birds' mouths meanwhile were wide open; 

 then down came a female Linnet. She seemed to take in the situation at a 

 glance, flew over to the feed tray, ate greedily, and then back to those 

 yawning mouths, and she fed those birds until they were satisfied, and sub- 

 sequently raised them. Could there be greater kindness than this? As for 

 gratitude, birds are full of it; for everything you give them they thank you. 

 If an apple, a crisp lettuce-head or a cluster of sweet alyssum or nasturtium 

 is put within their reach, they pipe a word of thanks before they eat. 



Our family, large as it is, is a happy one; there is little or no quarreling, 

 for there is plenty of food and room for all, — only at eventide, when the 

 sun begins to sink behind Point Loma, and the sea and sky is a mass of 

 gorgeous coloring, then they scold a little. Perhaps some one, unmindful 

 of the rights of others, has chosen the very particular limb or corner that 

 belongs to some one else, and for a few moments there is discord — for each 

 bird has his or her sleeping place — but gradually there steals a silence and, 

 as the night shadows creep softly, from out of the west comes a crescent 

 moon, that, peeping down shyly through the branches of the camphor tree, 

 sees only the great cage with no signs of life within. All is still, save for a 

 soft twitter now and then, like the last sweet words from a little child's 

 lips before he drops off to sleep. 



