148 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



acutely from nervous apprehension. Cases in which 

 birds have died of fright are well authenticated. The 

 writer has seen an instance of it in the case of a 

 greenfinch seized by a sparrow-hawk. The finch, 

 though not injured by the hawk, which had merely 

 picked it up in its claw, died of fright a few minutes 

 after the hawk was shot. A canary has also been 

 known to die from the same cause when a cat climbed 

 on to its cage. 



Next to the snake, the cat is the worst heredi- 

 tary enemy of the race of birds, and the fear of 

 cats is an inherited instinct with all wild birds. Yet 

 in Argentina there is one species, no larger than a 

 blackbird, which will attack and drive oft a cat in 

 the open, if near its nest. This is the oven-bird, 

 which is about the same size as a blackbird, and 

 makes a nest of clay, which is soon baked by the sun 

 into a vessel as hard as pottery. One who resided 

 for some years near Buenos Ayres informed the 

 writer that he has seen an oven-bird with a nest of 

 newly fledged young attack a cat, fly straight at its 

 face, peck and buffet it, and after returning twice to 

 the attack, rout the cat and chase it into the bushes. 

 The cat was " upset " by the attack, not being used 

 to this kind of thing, and tried to avoid the bird. 



Such animals as are by temperament suited for 

 domestication are not, as a rule, marked by special 

 traits of courage. The dog is an exception, for most 

 breeds, whether large or small, are very courageous. 

 One of the pluckiest animals we ever knew was a 

 Yorkshire terrier weighing only a few pounds. He 



