126 The Canary. 



and out of this goodly nest-full, not one remained 

 alive to increase our stock by the end of the following 

 week. 



In the upper aviary, our cinnamons gave equally as 

 goodly promise, as did Daisy. Seraph and Sylph like- 

 wise completed their nest, and the latter laid four fine 

 eggs, on which she duly sat, and then hatched, when 

 Beauty made a marauding excursion to her nest, 

 trying to steal the soft cotton therefrom, although 

 there was plenty of fresh below for her especial use. 

 A fierce battle accordingly ensued between these fair 

 ladies, the consequence of which was most disastrous 

 to the youthful birds, two of which were just hatched, 

 both being kicked out of the nest in the fray, and 

 drowned in the water-vase beneath. The nest was 

 upset, and the remaining eggs were either broken or 

 deserted, and thus our hopes in this direction were 

 again frustrated, and our rarest coloured birds were 

 desolate and forlorn. A second time they essayed, but 

 with little better success. Two birds alone were 

 hatched out of four eggs, but these were not sufficiently 

 fed, and so they shared the same fate, notwithstanding 

 all our efforts to the contrary. It was as though a 

 spell hung over all our proceedings, and we were never 

 to succeed in realising our fondly cherished dreams. 



Our lizards did the worst of any, for Spangle, as we 

 have already stated, deserted his lawful wife at the 

 beginning, and took little notice of anything she did in 

 the way of building. However she made an attempt 

 notwithstanding, and laid two eggs, one of which got 

 broken somehow, when she deserted the other and nest 



