24 Song Birds. 



pipes three tunes, is possibly less beloved and 

 treasured than the poor brown Linnet or the smoky 

 Bullfinch, whose song is called music only by a 

 partial mistress. 



It would be, I think, a great deal more pleasant 

 to help such single bird-owners to manage their pets 

 well, than to give instructions how to arrange an 

 aviary of three hundred, which seems always to me 

 so utterly uninteresting. One bird, or even a few 

 dozen, may be known and be made friends of, but 

 this it is evident that three hundred cannot be. 



However, I must only say that this chapter will be 

 devoted to birds kept in cages in the usual small 

 sort of cages, that is ; thus, whether the stock con* 

 sists of one or twenty, it need make no difference in 

 the advice for each. 



2. First, as to choice. I have already said that 

 Bullfinches, Goldfinches, Canaries or Chaffinches are 

 what seem to me most fitted to live alone. If a pair 

 are kept, they should be Canaries, Goldfinches, or 

 the Java Sparrows. Bullfinches are not so interesting 

 when there are two in a cage together ; and Chaf- 

 finches, I fear, are rather disposed to fight, and 

 constantly beat their wives. 



Even Goldfinches sometimes " swear" consider- 

 ably ; the others, on the contrary, are pleased to be 

 together, and live all the year round on the most 

 friendly terms. The English Wrens, and all the- 



