Various Special Birds. 33 



which always means they want something, and on the 

 days when the brood were just commencing to hop, 

 it was quite impossible for the proud mamma to let 

 anybody pass her door without giving information of 

 what was to be seen. 



One successful bird-fancier told me that he had 

 kept as many as four-and-twenty Canaries loose in an 

 aviary about eight feet square, of which only six were 

 cocks ; so that in fact he was making it just like a 

 poultry yard. But this is a plan I do not like at all. 

 The poor mother birds get so dreadfully overworked, 

 and besides, it is impossible they should be half so 

 happy. 



Mrs. Tuft, for instance, has laid her first egg 

 to-day, and is in a state of the profoundest bliss. 

 Mr. Tuft, having looked in once or twice by candle- 

 light to see that all's right upstairs, is now seated on 

 his perch close by, warbling the very sweetest of all 

 sweet-whispered songs ; but if Tuft had three other 

 wives and families claiming his attention, how could 

 he manage to do all this ? It is a consolation to 

 me to know that under the Turkish system, from 

 deficiency in attendance, family jars, and unavoidable 

 jealousies, it is extremely seldom that more young 

 birds grow up than would most likely do so if they 

 were let pair comfortably. Of those that are hatched, 

 many die quite young. The hope of gaining a great 

 many young birds would be of course the only object 



3 



