THE BIRDS OF THE AVIARY 



275 



animals in which we see a failure of color, are 

 generally weak and poor singers. 



We must now take leave of these charming 

 domestic birds and study others less musically 

 gifted, but nevertheless very worthy of attention. 



VII. Other Colored Song-Birds 



Without tracing the line between the graniv- 

 orous and the carnivorous species, we must 

 name a few of the joyous songsters who inhabit 



and solid, with perches and poles ; the food 

 should be flaxseed, soaked bread, and ants' 

 eggs. The sitting lasts sixteen days ; the eggs 

 are greenish blue with little dark brown spots. 

 The I'.'ild thrush has a way of perching, in the 

 early morning, on the top branch of a tree to 

 warble his matin song : 



That 's the wise thrush, who sings each song twice over. 

 Lest you should think he never could recapture 

 Its tirst fine, careless rapture. 



TnK Avi.\RV OF THI-. King of England 



our cages and aviaries. We find among them 

 many beautiful birds of pure stock and many 

 bastards, known in different lands under such 

 different names that it would take whole books 

 to record them. The same bird may have ten 

 or a dozen names ; consequently it is best to put 

 the Latin name after the familiar name of each. 

 First we will take the thrush family ( Tnrdi) 

 and its singing master {Tnrdiis miisiciis). We 

 find him here and there as a bird of passage, 

 though he makes his home throughout Europe 

 generally. He is easy to raise and to accustom 

 to confinement, but the cage must be large 



The hen bird builds her nest by preference 

 near water. 



The I'/ack thrush ( Tardus mcrula), a Euro- 

 pean bird, commonly called blackbird there, 

 is a wary, cunning fellow, but not so wary that 

 he does not readily get accustomed to captivity 

 in a cage. His whistle is lively, and he tries to 

 imitate the songs of other birds. The female 

 is very different in appearance from the male, 

 being brown in color, while her mate is black. 

 It is not difficult to teach young thrushes to 

 sing various tunes, provided they are sung to 

 them morning and evening in a quiet room. 



