AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



The Natural History of Cage Birds, which I now lay- 

 before the public, is a work I have long been solicited to 

 write. There are many people who like to keep birds, 

 who neither know their habits nor the proper treatment 

 or food requisite for them. Even those who are not alto- 

 gether ignorant of these, often have but very limited, 

 superficial, and, what is worse, sometimes erroneous ideas 

 on the subject. It is for such readers I have given the 

 following Introduction; for professed naturalists will find 

 nothing there but what they have already learnt, either 

 from my own works or from those of other authors on 

 natural history. 



If long experience and minute observation on the sub- 

 ject of his work is calculated to gain an author credit, I 

 flatter myself that this will not be denied me, since 

 from my earliest youth I have delighted in being sur- 

 rounded with birds, and am so accustomed to them that 

 I cannot write at my desk with pleasure, or even with 

 attention, unless animated by the warbling of the pleasing 

 little creatures which enliven my room. My passion 

 is carried so far. that I always nave about thirty birds 

 around me, and this has naturally led me to consider the 



