20 Birds I Have Kept. 



such as the Wood Lark, Canary, Blackcap, and in part that 

 of the ^Nightingale. It may also be taught a number of little 

 tricks, and to go and come at command. 



The most common disorders of the domesticated Linnet are 

 constipation, from the use of too much dry seed, and fits 

 from the accumulation of fat on the internal organs: it is a 

 hardy little bird on the whole, and generally lives from ten 

 to twelve years in the house; although instances are not 

 wanting of individuals having attained a much more advanced 

 age. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE CHAFFIXCH. 



AT the right hand furthest corner of our garden, looking 

 from the house, stood an immense cherry-laurel tree, 

 whose long, strong branches spread out horizontally to a dis- 

 tance of many feet all around; so that we could, and very 

 often did, sit beneath its shade. It was so large that generally 

 every year a Magpie built its nest on one of its great boughs 

 that overhung the large pond, or little lake, that bounded our 

 domains to the south: while just over the rustic seat upon 

 which my mother often sat and worked in summer time, a 

 Chaffinch usually made her nest, and reared a brood or two. 



I well remember how anxiously I waited for the little ones 

 to be hatched, in the first nest I had discovered in the laurel 

 tree; and how, one day, while I was playing in the shade 

 beside my mother, the old Chaffinch, who never seemed to 

 mind us in the least, suddenly flew off her nest with a twitter, 

 and darted into some bushes opposite. 



''I believe the young ones have come out!" exclaimed my 

 mother. '*0h! do look," I entreated: so she gently lowered 

 the bough upon which the nest was fixed, and peeped in: 



