28o 



OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



The Lark 



wagtail is an ornament to the aviary, the same 

 cannot be said of the white species, which man 

 is not allowed to catch in most countries. 



The bnnvii lark [Antlius pcnnsylvauicus) 

 is found throughout North America, but is 

 accidental in Europe. People say that the lark 

 is well fitted for cage life simply because they 

 want to enjoy its ravishing song. This is not 

 so. Of all the birds of heaven it should be 

 free ; only then can the full beauty of its 

 song be known. 



Hail to thee, blithe spirit! 



Bird thou never wert, 

 That from heaven, or near it, 



Pourest thy full heart 

 In profu.se strains of unpremeditated art. 



Teach me half the gladness 

 That thy soul must know, 

 Such harmonious madness 

 From my lips would flow. 

 The world would listen then as 1 am listening now. 



The spring without larks is no spring at 

 all, and though they make their nests close 

 to the ground they rise very high in the 

 air to announce triumphantly the day's re- 

 newal. But sweetest of all is it to hear 

 them in the open country when " the pale 

 purple evening melts around their flight." 

 Those who choose may keep them many 

 years in cages if fed on seeds, verdure of 

 various kinds, and roots, with plenty of sand 

 or turf on the floor of the cage. 



The songsters and whistlers that we 

 have now mentioned will not begin to fill 



an aviary. But how can we 

 describe in this limited space 

 the numerous e.xotic birds that 

 ought to be in it ? We cannot 

 even enumerate them, but 

 must pass to their larger 

 comrades, the parrots and 

 cockatoos. 



VIII. Parrots and 

 Cockatoos 



The first recorded informa- 

 tion that we have about par- 

 rots is in a description of a 

 festival given at Alexandria in Egypt two hun- 

 dred and eighty-four years before Christ. In 

 the reign of Alexander the Great they were 

 brought from Egypt to Greece. In Rome they 

 were articles of luxury, exchanged sometimes 

 for a slave. The cooked heads of parrots made 

 a feast for Heliogabalus and his lions, who re- 

 ceived their share, as they likewise did of 



The GOLDFtxcH 



