OUR PETS. 163 



nondescripts supposed to be of the canine race. If there 

 is pleasure in being able to give one's favourites the range 

 of a garden or an aviary, there is more intimacy, more 

 affection on both sides, when the captivity is closer, the 

 sphere of both parties more circumscribed, A bird, tame 

 enough to be allowed to come out of the cage and fly 

 about the room, is a great source of cheerful enjoyment to 

 any one confined to one room, either by a sedentary and 

 soKtary occupation, or by the more depressing effects of 

 long illness. Its merry notes, active movements, and con- 

 fiding trust, often win the lonely invalid from sad thoughts ; 

 and even when in its little prison, its cheerful content and 

 half shy attempts at making friends are very attractive. 

 Of course, preferences vary : some may and do prefer a 

 quiet comfort-loving pussy as a room-mate, but it may be 

 from habit and association. I cannot but feel that there 

 is more alleviating pleasure derived from a tame bird by 

 the sick or solitary than from any animal, even a dog. 

 Marked as is often the attachment that keeps a dog beside 

 one it loves, lying quietly for many a long day beside the 

 sufferer, — it feels more selfish to allow it to do so, than to 

 retain beside one a bird habituated to a cage. There is an 

 odd sort of comfort, too, in the consciousness that one 

 can't spoil a bird, whereas it is cj[uite possible to make a 

 spoiled pet of a dog or cat, and these are c|uite as tyran- 

 nical, and almost as disagreeable, as a spoiled child. 



It were endless to quote passages from prose writers in 

 favour of our pets ; the dogs of our celebrated men are as 

 well known almost as their masters. Who is there that 



