OUR PETS. lo3 



incessantly. I have observed the same difference in parrots, 

 and, what is more uncommon, in other birds. The various 

 ravens we have had certainly possessed this imitative 

 feculty in different degrees ; some taking pleasure in bark- 

 ing when they heard the dog do so, or in quacking like a 

 duck, while the others remained satisfied with their original 

 gifts, varied as these are. Some canaries have a power of 

 imitating the song of other birds kept in the same cage, 

 while others keep true to their native notes : the siskin 

 readily acquires some notes from the canary ; but though 

 the bullfinch can be taught to whistle tunes, and seems to 

 prefer those thus acquired to its own song, I have never 

 knowii one who imitated the song of his fellow-captives. 

 I remember a tame sparrow who used to make desperate 

 efforts to sing like a canary ; fiiiling in this, he would rush 

 at the cage and endeavour to pull off the feathers of the 

 rival songsters — an endeavour in which he was much more 

 successful than in his attempts at melody. 



It is a question whether much can be learned from the 

 habits of animals in captivity that might lead us to decide 

 upon their native instincts, for these certainly become 

 curiously modified and even altered by domestication, and 

 this tendency to assimilate themselves to the ways of 

 human beings. The knowledge of time possessed not only 

 by dogs, but by other animals, is one of these acquired 

 instincts, if we may use such a term ; and it is no little 

 credit to the punctuality of a family when the feathered 

 and four-footed dependants calculate accurately both their 

 feeding time and that of the return of any daily absent 



