HOW TO PRESERVE ALL BIRDS. 195 



blackbird lie might alter Lis opinions. The 

 first year he shall live in the park of a game 

 preserver. Here he will enjoy perfect happi- 

 ness. He can warble his sw^eetest songs and 

 rear his family in peace, and will know no 

 anxiety except to take care to wake sufficiently 

 early to secure the early-rising worm. The 

 following year he shall live in the pleasure- 

 grounds of a gentleman who is so fond of birds 

 that he has written a book about them, but 

 who thinks it wrong to interfere with the 

 balance of Nature. Here he will see his first 

 wife killed by a sparrow-hawk, and his second 

 carried ofi* by a merlin on the day on which 

 she laid her first eojs:, while three out of the 

 four young ones he rears by his third will be 

 killed by a cat as soon as they leave the nest ; 

 and on some occasion he will only save his own 

 life from the same creature by the sacrifice of 

 his tail. We do think he would begin to 

 reahse who were birds' friends, and afterwards, 

 2 



