Mdkiny Friends with Wild Birds. 103 



flirtations with some of my canaries a noisy llirta- 

 tion it is, botli parties rattling against the window- 

 pane and great is my bird's excitement when she 

 hears her sparrow. 



Sparrows, though plebeian, are good hearted birds. 

 I have heard of cases where they have continually 

 fed a cage bird, or a nest full of young hung outside 

 a window. It is an experiment in the result of which 

 I have but little doubt, though my fondness for 

 feeding birds myself has deterred me from tiying it. 

 In winter it is by no means rare to find a half-starved 

 bird, and as such a one is very likely to stay willingly 

 indoors while the cold weather lasts ; by the time 

 that is over it is tolerably tame and accustomed to 

 its new home. 



These winter-caught birds, I think, should always 

 be let out before the spring comes on. If the cage 

 is then hung outside for a day or two and kept well 

 supplied with food, it will probably induce the bird 

 to keep up the acquaintance, and to return in any 

 trouble to the house that sheltered it. These means 

 at any rate make the birds about a place tame and 

 fearless, and add tenfold to the pleasure of hearing 

 their pleasant songs. 



4. As an instance of this pleasantest way of rearing 

 birds to be tame, I may quote the account which 

 Bishop Stanley gives of a Nightingale, a bird, it 

 must be remembered, of the shyest habits. This 



