244 MOCKING-BIRD. 



tion of sitting; for if the eggs be thus dis- 

 turbed, she will invariably leave them. 



Should you wish to rear the young by 

 hand, the directions for that purpose be- 

 fore laid down must be closely followed, 

 and the young Mockers fed every half 

 hour at the least. The old birds will then 

 probably, but not certainly, rear another 

 brood. 



When diseased, as all the ailments 

 which affect birds are similar, they may 

 be treated like the Canary in a similar 

 situation. But the Mocking-bird is sub- 

 ject to one disease which is incurable it 

 is blindness, which generally afflicts him 

 after he has spent six or seven years 

 in confinement. Thus shut out from 

 light, he gradually pines away and dies. 

 Alas! that the career of brilliant genius 

 should be always one of shortness and 

 sorrow! Man like the bird spends his 

 life in a cage of worldliness, looked upon 

 for one moment with admiration, the next 

 sinking down beneath the darkness of 



