READILY DOMESTICATED. 337 



very voracious bird. Lieutenant Axel Geijer, indeed, 

 assures me it at times feeds on the young of water fowl, 

 and thai on one occasion he himself knew it to destroy, 

 in the course of a few days, nearly the whole of a brood 

 of Golden-eyes, some two to three weeks old. 



When taken young this bird is readily domesticated. 

 I have had many in my possession that had the run of the 

 yard, or the garden, as the case might be, and were fully 

 as tame as barn-door fowls. Their wings were clipped ; 

 but a friend to whom I presented a pair allowed his their 

 full liberty, and, as a consequence, they were often 

 absent from home for days together. If hungry, however, 

 they would return, and after making several gyrations 

 over the homestead, alight on the roof of an outbuilding. 

 When called to by their pet name, they would alight on 

 the grass-plot in front of the house, where they ravenously 

 fed on the otfal of fish, or meat thrown to them. But though 

 liberty has charms it has its ills also, as these poor birds 

 experienced, for during one of their migratory excursions 

 they were seen by a gunner, who, unaware of their being 

 home-pets, shot them both. 



Another of these birds, given by me to a youth in the 

 town of Wenersborg, had, like those in my own pos- 

 session, the run of the premises. For the most part its 

 wings were kept clipped, but at times this precaution was 

 neglected, when it would fly away, and for a while enjoy 

 itself with its wild congeners, who were numerous there- 

 abouts. During the autumn of 1800, it was supposed to 

 have taken its final departure, nothing having been seen 

 of it for a considerable time. One fine day, however, its 

 owner observed a large bird soaring high above the town. 

 At first he took it for a falcon, but on closer inspection 

 made it out to be his missing favourite; and on calling to 

 it by its name, it at once made a swoop downward and 

 alighted in a crowded thoroughfare at his very feet. On 



z 



