70 STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



claws in tlie air; a third imitated a Dutch 

 milk maid going to market, with pails on her 

 shoulders ; a fourth mimicked a Yenetian girl, 

 looking out of a window ; a fifth appeared as a 

 soldier, and mounted guard as a sentinel; and 

 the sixth acted as a cannonier, with a cap on 

 his head, a musket on his shoulder, and a match 

 in his claw, with which he discharged a small 

 cannon. The same bird also acted as if he had 

 been wounded, and was carried in a wheel- 

 barrow to the hospital, after which — the ima- 

 ginary cure having been performed — he flew 

 away before the company. 



I have known a yellow bird confined in a 

 cage, who, whenever he wanted to eat or drink, 

 would draw up a little wagon, running on an 

 incUned plane outside of his cage, his food and 

 water being placed in the wagon, which woukl 

 return of itself to the foot of the plane, when the 

 bird let go of the cord that was attached to it. 



A friend of mine -writes me that she heard 

 an interesting story of a yellow bird last sum- 

 mer, while visiting mth an acquaintance in 

 Oswego. " Near the dwelling where I was vis- 

 iting," she says, "was a nest of unfledged yel- 

 low birds. The children put a canary cage in 

 the tree, and in it placed the nest, so that the 

 mother bird could still provide for her helpless 



