RUNAWAYS 



MANY pet birds escape from captivity every 

 year, and their distressed owners wonder 

 how they fare. For it is generally under- 

 stood that the wild creatures resent one 

 who has had long association with man, 

 and usually do their best to kill it. But 

 this, I think, is merely a fiction. It is said 

 that should a canary join a flock of gold- 

 finches, they will taboo it, and even fall 

 upon it and eventually kill it with their 

 beaks. Cases that I have known prove 

 exactly the reverse. I know that a canary 

 among sparrows meets with kindly treatment, 

 perhaps because its appearance is so much 

 more striking than their own dull plumage 

 that like primitive savages seeing a white 

 man for the first time, they are inclined to 

 fall down and worship it. 



In Hyde Park one summer I saw a little 

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