STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 129 



flew from tlie place wliere he was sitting, 

 topped upon the back of the crow, and rode 

 several times around the platform, the crow 

 seeming to like the sport as well as his rider. 

 Another canary bird stood on the barrel of a 

 pistol, when his master discharged it, without 

 stirring an inch at the noise. Afterward he 

 made two or three of these birds fly through a 

 small ring which had been suspended a few feet 

 from the floor, the ring being surrounded with 

 pitch, which was on fire at the time. Then he 

 harnessed one of them up to a carriage, and 

 made him draw it around the platform. In- 

 deed, this gentleman had taught these little 

 birds to perform all sorts of cunning tricks, 

 which amused me exceedingly. 



I want to find some good place in my book, 

 to say a word about confining birds in cages ; 

 and, perhaps, as the canary bird is especially 

 interested in this matter, there will be no better 

 place to say it than just at this point. I do not 

 think, my dear young friend, that it is alto- 

 gether right to shut up birds in cages. It is 

 true, as I said before, that I once had a bird 

 myself But while I owned him, my views 

 about keeping birds in confinement were some- 

 what changed; and when little. Willy died, I 

 determined I would never keep another bird, 



