30 FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



something when its natural diet fails, and then it 

 evinces a marked preference for the seeds of the various 

 coniferae over those of any other tree or plant; next to 

 pine and fir seeds it prefers those of the sunflower and 

 hemp, a partiality it possesses in common with the 

 remaining members of the group, or family to which it 

 belongs, a circumstance that should be borne in mind 

 when it is desired to keep it successfully in confinement. 



I had long been acquainted with this little bird as an 

 occasional winter visitor to my garden, but had never 

 thought of keeping it in a cage until one day I happened 

 to see some in the window of a bird-dealer's shop, look- 

 ing so miserable and so very much out of place that I 

 went in and bought a pair of them immediately. 



The attendant having caught two of the struggling 

 captives, transferred them to a little paper bag which he 

 twisted up adroitly, having previously made a few small 

 holes in it to admit air, and I carried them away in my 

 hand. 



At first there was a great commotion in the bag, and 

 once or twice I thought my new acquisitions would have 

 got away by forcing themselves through the ventilators, 

 but after a time they quieted down, and I reached home 

 without any mishap, at least in the way of loss ; but as 

 the birds had been perfectly quiet I was afraid they had 

 been suffocated, or had died from sheer fright. 



On peeping carefully into the little paper bag I 

 discovered the cause of the almost supernatural stillness 



