■ «9; 



10 INTRODUCTION. 



attention must be paid to this particular circumstance, as 

 scarcely a bird can be preserved for any length of time with 

 all its toes uninjured. It is not to be denied, however, that 

 many birds keep themselves exceedingly neat, whilst others, 

 even of the same genus, are so uncleanly, that they are not 

 only always soiling themselves, but never clean their feet, 

 beak, nor wings. 



Some bird fanciers take delight in making birds so tame as 

 to be taken upon the hand into the open air, or to be allowed 

 to fly away and come back again upon a call. " One of my 

 friends," says Dr. Bechstein, " who has tamed birds as well as 

 otters, adders, foxes, weasels, and martins, so that they would 

 follow him upon a sign given, adopts the following easy and 

 certain method to effect it : — When he wishes to accustom a 

 bird to fly abroad, or to go out with him perched upon his 

 finger or his shoulder, he first teases it with a soft feather in 

 its cage which stands open. The bird soon snaps at the feather, 

 and then at his finger, and it will then come out of the cage, and 

 perch upon the extended finger; he immediately strokes it, 

 and lays a few choice morsels before it. These, the bird will 

 soon take out of the hand itself. He then commences by 

 familiarising the bird with some peculiar call or whistle, and 

 he carries it, as soon as it permits itself to be grasped in the 

 hand, placed upon his hand or shoulder, from chamber to 

 chamber, taking care to close the doors and windows ; he then 

 suffers it to fly, and calls it back again. As soon as it attends 

 to this call without being scared or frightened, he takes it 

 cautiously into the open air, and thus the bird becomes 

 gradually so accustomed to him that he can carry it abroad or 

 into company without its offering to fly away." 



Care, however, must be taken not to carry adult birds, which 

 have been thus tamed, into the open air where they can hear 

 their fellows, in the spring or at pairing time, which are 

 usually the periods when they show indications of resuming 

 their native wildness. 



If it is wished to teach a bird to eat out of the mouth, it 

 must be kept for a time in the cage without food, and then 



