182 BIRDS OF THE WATER 



sters were beginning in their peregrinations 

 to upset the ink and generally disarrange 

 my working room, where they had been 

 brought up. At last came the day of 

 liberation, with its anxieties lest the birds 

 should lose themselves during the first flight, 

 and its satisfaction when we beheld them 

 established and at home in the big willow 

 on the lawn. One side of the aviary, I 

 msij say, was taken down so that they 

 could emerge from it without any handling, 

 for however tame birds may be they cannot 

 bear to be held — ^their liberty is too precious 

 to be entrusted even for a moment to the 

 very dearest of human friends. Should 

 grasping, however, be unavoidable, the bird 

 should be held gently, though very firmly. 

 The struggling, which terrifies more than 

 the capture, can thus be almost entirely 

 avoided, and the bird liberated tenderly 

 and quietly. Ever since then, with the 

 exception of another brief period of deten- 

 tion to "Pidgy," through an accident, and 

 to both during the worst period of their 

 moult, "Kuku" and "Pidgy" have come and 

 gone in perfect freedom. "Uncle Harry," 



