I cannot conclude this little volume without cau- 

 tioning my inexperienced readers against purchasing 

 their birds, cages, and seed from itinerant bird-dealers 

 and careless and ignorant salesmen. Great deception 

 takes place with regard to birds : those who hawk wild 

 birds newly caught about the streets, will sometimes 

 drug them till they are half insensible, or confine their 

 poor little bodies with wires in order to exhibit their 

 tameness, and will paint common Sparrows, and im- 

 provise a crest upon an English bird, and pass it off 

 upon some credulous purchaser as a rare and costly 

 foreigner. Instances of these frauds have often come 

 to my knowledge : only the other day, a benevolent 

 German lady wrote to ask me to give a home to a poor 

 little bird which she had picked up in a street in Lon- 

 don : she supposed it had escaped from some cage, and 

 she described it as of very beautiful plumage, and said 

 it must be very rare, as no bird-dealer to whom she 

 had taken it could give it a name. She provided it 

 with seed and water, but it died the next day, and on 

 examination it was found to be a painted Sparrow, 



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