Occupants of an Aviary. 93 



these birds in Paris, who, in their frequent scuffles for 

 food, used gravely to admonish one another, Tu ne 

 voleras pas. 



CHAPTER XI. 



OCCUPANTS OF AN AVIARY. 



1. OF all the knotty points in the keeping hirds, the 

 knottiest and the most troublesome is to know which 

 will live together. 



My own belief is that much more depends on the 

 way of treatment than on the birds themselves. Of 

 course, if a wild bird is put into a cage full of tame and 

 gentle ones, it is much like a young gorilla set loose 

 in a* peaceful family : the mischief, the spite, the 

 tricks, are something inconceivable, eveiy bird gets 

 cross, and the mistress is in despair. Civilized 

 birds do not behave in this way, and it should be an 

 unalterable law never to put a bird into an aviary, or 

 large cage full of others, till it has been kept some 

 days and has got used to the place. Birds are 

 upset and bewildered by any change, as much or 

 more than human beings ; and the catching to put 

 them in a travelling cage, and the journey, being 

 earned, perhaps, through some noisy streets, is a 

 disturbing business ; and then, again, in the change 

 of cages, very often, indeed, new birds (Jo not know 



