108 The Canary. 



Placing one in each corner of the aviary, and others 

 midway between, we left each bird to select his own 

 plot of building-ground, as whim or fancy might direct. 

 Very amusing was it to watch each newly-married 

 couple setting off on a house-hunting expedition. With 

 critical eye and searching glance they inspected all the 

 ins and outs of their future domicile, weighing the 

 advantages and drawbacks to each with discriminating 

 wisdom and caution. One pair evidently liked to see 

 all that was going on in the bustling and busy scene of 

 the little world around them, and chose a handsome 

 villa residence close to the wire fencing which formed 

 the boundary of their domain ; another, more shy and 

 retiring, selected a quiet cozy-looking domicile in an 

 out-of-the-way corner at the back, into which no in- 

 quisitive passer-by might look or intrude ; a third 

 evidently looked out for a bright and cheerful aspect, 

 having an eye to the early rays of the morning sun; 

 while a fourth, reflecting how all their domestic comfort 

 might be destroyed, could every idle, gossiping neigh- 

 bour overlook their house, selected the highest situation 

 they could find, from whence they could look down with 

 an air of conscious superiority on all below. In a word, 

 some liked light, and some shade, some the activity of 

 the world, some the retirement of the cloister, and thus 

 it came to pass, one way or other, each selected the 

 spot that pleased them best ; and though there was but 

 one vase of water for each four houses, the ladies con- 

 trived to live in harmony and peace, instead of, as is 

 too often the case under such circumstances with the 

 human race, wasting many hard words over a little 



