70 IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



had a curious habit of going to the salt- 

 cellars and helping himself to grains of salt; 

 once he took as many as thirteen pinches in 

 succession ! We often wondered after- 

 wards whether he took the salt because he 

 was ill or whether it was the salt that made 

 him ill. 



I would gladly sacrifice many fruit buds 

 for the sake of seeing bullfinches in the 

 garden, but never yet have I had that 

 pleasure. Other people in the village do not 

 regard their visits in the same light, and it 

 is only because I hear of their being shot 

 that I know they come here. 



A bullfinch that belonged to a cousin must 

 I think have reached the highest degree of 

 tameness possible in a bird. Tommy, as he 

 was called, was taken from the nest before 

 he could fly, and he not only lost all sense 

 of fear but showed an extraordinary personal 

 devotion to his mistress. He used to wake 

 her in the morning with a kiss, and warble 

 his little greeting. He would come directly 

 she called him, and would fly after her .from 

 room to room. This devotion was at last 

 the cause of his death. In May, 1901, he 

 was taken to London to a strange house, and 

 one day hearing his mistress's voice as she 

 came in, he flew down the stairs to meet her, 

 and somehow struck against the hall lamp 

 with such force that he was taken up dead. 



I find the following entry in my diary for 



