32 F&ATBERED FRIENDS, 



them for a meal, and when the kernels had been devoured 

 the birds would sit motionless for a few minutes, and 

 then recommence their frantic search for an outlet from 

 the confining cage, every corner and portion of which 

 they examined with a minuteness that was remarkable 

 and an assiduity deserving of a better result than the 

 fatigue which was the only reward of their earnest 

 endeavours to get away. 



Tired out at last, the Tits would rest for a minute 

 or two, then fly down for a fresh supply of food, and 

 when that had been consumed, they would begin again 

 their attempt to escape from "durance vile": and so 

 on from dawn till dusk, when, tucking their heads under 

 their wings and nestling as closely to each other as they 

 could, they composed themselves to sleep, and rested 

 quietly till morning, possibly dreaming pleasant dreams 

 of liberty in the pine woods which for all they knew 

 to the contrary, poor little things, they were never to 

 visit any more. 



A very few days, experience of them in the house 

 was sufficient to convert my desire to possess a pair 

 of Coal Tits into a yet stronger determination to get 

 rid of them at once, when somebody suggested that 

 I should turn them out into a small aviary that stood 

 on the lawn and was then tenanted by a number of 

 tiny Waxbills, Weavers, Java Sparrows, and I think a 

 couple of Shaft-tailed Whydah Birds and some Masked 

 and other small Doves. 



