50 OUR HOME PETS 



best place is under a piazza roof, or against the 

 trunk of a tree, if no cats are about. 



A bird that is let out is sometimes trouble- 

 some about getting into the cage of another, 

 and insisting upon staying. To remove him 

 without catching him, which it is always un- 

 desirable to do, take the food and water dishes 

 from the cage he is in without startling him ; 

 close the doors of all other cages except his 

 own, in which put his dishes and any dainty 

 he specially likes. He will soon get hungry, 

 and leave the provisionless apartment, very 

 likely flying to the top of his own. Here he 

 can look down and see the feast spread, a 

 temptation generally irresistible, and in a few 

 minutes the door may be shut upon him. 



I never had but one bird who would stay 

 out and starve rather than go home, and that 

 was a Brazilian cardinal. He did not appear 

 at all discontented, and he seemed just as 

 happy, when not let out at all ; but once out, 

 he had a rooted dislike to having a door shut 

 upon him, and a vagabondish way of foraging 

 upon his neighbors. He would stay content- 

 edly in another bird's cage all day. When I 

 wanted to get him home, I sat at my desk, 



