124 TAMING AND TRAINING. 



"words of comfort for hcurs of sorrow " you may 

 possibly select just such a bird ; but nine, times out oi 

 ten you are liable to select a loud, shrill singer, whose 

 notes seemingly pierce the brain. 



How are you to obtain that which you so much 

 desire ? You have a friend whose bird just suits 

 you ; but that particular song you cannot by any 

 possibility select in a bird-store. You have but one 

 resource left ; and that is, your confidence in the 

 dealer : tell him plainly what you wish ; and, if he 

 has such a bird, you may depend upon his giving it 

 to you ; for he knows, even better than the purchaser, 

 just what is required ; and he will strive to please 

 you, thereby not only gaining your esteem, but also 

 the patronage of your friends, whom you will as 

 suredly send to "your bird-store." One source of 

 great annoyance to a dealer is, after having select- 

 ed such a bird, for the purchaser to turn to some 

 other patron (always a perfect stranger) and ask his 

 or her opinion of the bird, and then take the advice 

 of a person whom they never saw before, and proba- 

 bly will never see again, and select a bird which 

 the dealer knows is not what is desired, and in a 

 few days a week at furthest return to exchange 

 it ; when, by taking the dealer's first selection, and 

 holding no conversation with a stranger whose 

 knowledge of a bird may have been as profound as 

 the bird's knowledge of him or her, thereby causing 

 a " little unpleasantness " between dealer and patron, 

 which was as needless as it was unnecessary. 



Many persons have an idea that a bird with cleaj 



