310 BRITISH SONG BIKDS. 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 



If the young fancier wishes to preserve his little captives in health 

 and song, he must be scrupulously attentive to the cages in which 

 they are kept ; they should be cleaned out twice or thrice a week, 

 and the perches scraped once a week at furthest, for r exigence in 

 these particulars engenders many evils which the birus only can 

 suffer, such as gouty feet, loss of claws, &c., besides the inconve- 

 niences unpleasant to the fancier, arising from the scent of sick 

 birds. 



Some fanciers recommend the use of a lime wash for the inside of 

 the breeding cage, once or twice during the summer months, but if 

 careful cleaning will not keep the inmates in good health and free 

 from vermin, the cage should be thrown aside. 



Never go out for a walk without bringing home a green sod for 

 your skylark, and a little groundsel, chick weed, or plantain for the 

 rest of your birds ; who can tell but what a little fresh green- meat 

 hung tastefully about their cages, causes them to fancy that they are 

 once more in their natural haunts. Never let sand nor water be 

 wanting. 



ENGLISH TALKING BIRDS. 



You have most of you heard at one time or another some of those 

 wonderful stories which are told, of talking birds, how a magpie, 

 hanging in his cage near the docks, having listened to the carmen, 

 learnt to call out, " Back, back, gee whoo-up," until one day he, by 

 his calling, backed a cart into the dock, where both the horses, who 

 had obeyed the voice of the mischievous waggoner, were drowned. 

 Of the starling, whose cage hung opposite the little stall of a poor 

 snob, that was wont to give a long whistle, then call out "Snob" 

 every time the poor little cobbler went home with a job, or came 

 back with old shoes to repair, and how the snob at last got so enraged 

 that he used to come out of his stall, shake his fist at the starling, and 

 call the bird everything but a gentleman, while the only reply was a 

 more prolonged whistle, and a louder cry of " Snob" from the star- 

 ling. How, one day, after a long altercation with the bird, the snob 

 came out to shy his lapstone at it ; how he missed the cage, and 

 sent the lapstone through the parlour window bang into a large 

 aquarium, which it smashed to atoms, and left such a lot of anemones, 

 hermit-crabs, prawns, shrimps, and we know not what besides, 

 sprawling over the carpet, as gave the parlour "a most ancient and 

 fish- like smell" for weeks after ; and as the value of the aquarium, 

 with its contents, was some ten pounds or more, the snob, when he 

 heard of the damage he had done, packed up his last and awl, never 

 came back for his lapstone, and for aught we know, plunged into 

 the first aquarium he came to, where he may be still swimming 

 about even to this day. Then there was the raven, who, because 



