"96 Song J3irds. 



to-do, and sometimes drives down a really washed 

 bird from a sunny corner, that it may diy itself. 



6. In a cage like this I find that the severest 

 battles are between two Goldfinches ; an old bird, 

 for instance, and the boldest Grey-pate (one of this 

 year's birds without the red head plumage) ; they 

 scold, and flutter, and scream at one another, till 

 it needs daily experience to feel easy that no harm 

 will be done ; still I never knew them to do more than 

 make a tremendous noise. 



7. The birds which are really unsafe (whatever may 

 be the sweetness of their individual dispositions,) are 

 Thrushes ; Ox-eyes, or large Blue Tits ; and Bobins. 

 I do not feel certain that Bobby. would get fighting 

 -amongst other birds, only with fellow Eobins, and 

 in the glass with himself ; still it seems to me to 

 l)e a sort of waste to put Bobins into a crowd, while 

 with regard to other birds of the above-named classes 

 it is really very necessary not to be misled by their 

 innocent antecedents into admitting any. I heard 

 of a Blue Tit, commonly called* Tom Tit, who was 

 hatched in a Canary's nest, and brought up always 

 in a cage, and never had tasted anything stronger 

 than bread and milk in all its life before ; but a 

 poor little brown mouse one day appeared in the 

 room where Tom resided, and it was only " a word 

 and a blow ; " Tom made but one dash, and his 

 victim lay dead upon the floor whilst very rapidly 



