On Taming Birds. 19 



to say familiar; solitude is her greatest grievance, 

 and she is heard complaining loudly, if ever for a 

 moment she is condemned to her own society.* 



8. My present especial room stock consists of 

 three Goldfinches, eight Canaries, and one Bullfinch ; 

 and while I write these words, nine small birds are 

 hopping all about. In fact, when the cage doors 

 open, they generally all fly down in a whirl upon me. 

 I turn my head, and three are perched, conversing 

 sociably upon my pillow ; and as I resume my 

 sentence, one that has just washed, flies briskly 

 across the room, perches upon my head, and with a 

 tremendous shake commences the arrangement of his 

 very disordered toilette. 



The various characters are a great amusement, 

 as they are cautious, polite, presumptuous or con- 

 descending. Charlie, for instance (all my birds 

 have names), conies, when spoken to, to the edge of his 

 cage, and looking down superior from his height upon 

 me, vouchsafes to warble me a song in the lowest 

 and sweetest of all sweet Woodlark tones. 



And then there is Tuck, he is a very rapacious 



* Very melancholy is the sequel of this Bullfinch's history. 

 Some time after the foregoing passage was written, Bullie 

 was unavoidably banished for a while from her mistress's 

 room. Every one thought she would have been happy in the 

 society of other birds, but no; for the first day or two she cried 

 very much, and then she refused to eat, and died within a 

 week. No one had any idea that the poor bird was pining, 

 and it was a real trouble to lose so warm-hearted a pet. 



22 



