n8 



TRANSPORTING BIRDS. 



expressman may handle a trunk roughly, and throw 

 packages around in a careless manner, but not 

 the little innocent bird. 



Could you but see, as the author has so many, 

 many times, on a cold,*bleak winter's day, an ex- 

 press-messenger, clad in an ordinary under coat, 

 drive to the store door, and take from his wagon a 

 package of birds closely wrapped in his overcoat, re 

 marking as he placed the package within the door, 

 " I could not bear, Mr. Holden, to see the little 

 things suffer such a terrible day as this." Or had 

 you been with the author one stormy night last 

 winter, when coming eastward from New York 

 by steamer, upon which was a large shipment of 

 birds in charge of the Adams Express Company, you 

 might have seen the messenger, on arriving at Fal. 1 

 River, carry the package with the utmost care into 

 the cars, and place it near the stove in that part of 

 the car usually occupied by himself. The comfort 

 and safety of these helpless creatures was to him of 

 the utmost importance. Having some curiosity. I 

 asked him why he was so particular about the package, 

 he replied, without knowing to whom he was speak- 

 ing, " Ah, sir, I love those little birds ! they can- 

 not take care of themselves, and God knows my first 

 duty is to them." A call at the office of the com 

 pany revealed the fact, that the messenger was Mr, 

 David Crowley, one of the three survivors of the 

 fated * Lexington," which was burned in 1842. The 

 large bird importing houses have shipped nearly 

 half a million birds; and this immense number 



