1 70 Bird-keeping. 



but he would not pair with her. She, too, has proved 

 a very interesting bird, and her attachment to her mis- 

 tress^ equals that of her old favourite. Whenever she 

 hears her voice, or even the rustle of her dress, she 

 breaks out into a happy song of greeting, and will put 

 herself into a curious attitude with head and tail up- 

 raised, seeming in a perfect ecstacy of delight, not 

 noticing even the most tempting spider or caterpillar 

 till satisfied with her mistress's caresses. She laid 

 three or four eggs every summer, and last year took 

 some twigs out of the fireplace, with which she at- 

 tempted to build a nest behind the drawing-room 

 mirror. She lives in a large cage, but spends most of 

 her time at liberty, generally going into her home 

 when told to do so. 



Another lady, living in Devonshire, tells me that she 

 has had a cock Virginian Nightingale for two years, 

 whose song is quite delicious, very like that of the 

 English Nightingale, and he is as tame and as much 

 attached to her as the birds whose history I have given 

 above. She put him into a small aviary in her garden 

 last summer, where she had reared several Budgerigars 

 and Cockatiels, with a hen newly purchased, which 

 unfortunately fell into a deep decline. He was quite 

 devoted to her, and fed her with the choicest delicacies 

 he could find, spiders especially ; but she became 

 weaker and weaker, till she died. These anecdotes 

 show that Virginian Nightingales do not deserve the 



