266 SONG BIRDS IN CONFINEMENT. 



rather would we hear the Merle and the Mavis, with our 

 feet upon the daisied sod, and our brows fanned by the fresh 

 breezes of heaven, than listen to the most accomplished 

 parlour-singer that ever strained its throat in a gilded 

 cage ; but we love to hear the caged songster, too, at times 

 when country pleasures are beyond our reach ; and how 

 many there are to whom the trill of the Lark and the 

 warble of the Nightingale, and the flute-like whistle of the 

 Blackbird, are, indeed, unwonted sounds. 



Many Song Birds, again, which now live in confinement, 

 have never known the sweets of liberty, and are evidently 

 so contented and happy in their imprisonment, that we can 

 scarcely imagine them to be more so in any other state ; 

 for, although we may agree with Mary Howitt, when she 

 sings 



How happy the life of a bird must be, 

 Flitting about from tree to tree ; 



yet we must remember that this is but the bright side of the 

 picture; that all is not summer sunshine and plenty with 

 the wild free denizens of the woods and fields, which, in 

 the season of cold and scarcity, die by thousands. The 

 feathered captive, then, well fed and warmly housed, pines 

 not for freedom, but rejoices in the genial warmth and tender 

 care of those to whose society it has become accustomed, 

 and whose love and solicitude it delights to repay with sweet 

 song, and all the tokens of affection of which it is capable. 

 Birds, then, we say, which are bred in, and used to 

 captivity, enjoy as happy a life at all times, and suffer far 

 less hardships at certain seasons, than those which have 



Their nest among the gorses, 



And their song in the star-courses ; 



or which 



Dwell within the shade 

 Of the leafy forest glade. 



Let it not be thought by this that we are the apologists 

 for the capture of Song Birds, and especially of those kinds, 

 such as the Nightingale and most of the migratory Warblers, 

 which manifest a decided repugnance to captivity, and 

 usually pine and die when confined. For these soft- 



