212 NATURAL HISTORY 



comes in its way, but probably looks out a nurse in 

 some degree congenerous, with whom to intrust its 

 young," is perfectly new to me; and struck me so 

 forcibly, that I naturally fell into a train of thought that 

 led me to consider whether the fact was so, and what 

 reason there was for it. When I came to recollect and 



it went a little off", speedily returning, so that it had been several times 

 taken in again; for when admission was positively refused, it found its 

 way into a bedchamber by some open window, and was found there half 

 starved. It was at last turned loose in my room, where it established 

 itself on the top of one of two large cages which were in different parts 

 of the room, and some food was placed there for it. It continued more 

 than a twelvemonth there, frequently flying round the room, but never 

 perching on any thing but the top of one of the two cages, which, much 

 to my convenience, it seemed to think the only fit position for a bird 

 to occupy. While at liberty to exercise itself by flight round the room 

 it was perfectly free from fits, but if replaced in a cage, the fits returned 

 if it had any thing richer than bread to eat, even the difference of a roll 

 instead of the household loaf brought on symptoms of illness. After it 

 had continued for above a year to be a very agreeable inmate of my room 

 occasioning no inconvenience, it acquired a habit of ensconcing itself at 

 roosting time in a small pan of glazed white earthenware, or in an open 

 tin box which happened to be on the top of the cage; and after some time 

 it was discovered that this was an artifice to escape the molestation of a 

 swarm of little bird-bugs, which had been introduced into the cage un- 

 observed with some foreign birds from London, and had bred rapidly in 

 the hot weather in the crevices of the cage. Before they could be effec- 

 tually destroyed, these bloodsuckers had made his quarters so uncom- 

 fortable, that one evening he fled to roost where he espied the place of a 

 book vacant in the bookcase, and from that moment, having acquired the 

 knowledge, that birds could securely live elsewhere than either in or on 

 a bird-cage, he became the greatest possible nuisance, hammering at the 

 unbound books with his bill and picking them to pieces. I had long 

 hoped in vain that he wo.uld avail himself of the open window to depart, 

 till one day having flown rapidly round the room three or four times in 

 the swing of his flight, he dashed out at the window, and having gone 

 forward into the high trees he was seen no more. 



Having once indulged a nightingale with milk to drink instead of 

 water, it drank it with such avidity for a week, that it brought on an at- 

 tack of plethora, in consequence of which it sat immoveable and as if 

 stupefied on its perch for three days without tasting food, and died. 



Salad oil I have found to be the best physic that can be given to a bird 

 in illness. 



I had some years ago a bird which I am quite confident was a maniac, 

 and that such intellect as those little creatures enjoy, was in it deranged. 

 The bird was a whitethroat, which had been reared from the nest, and 

 had been extremely tame and familiar, living in company with several 



