THE STORY OF LITTLE BILLEE. 



CAROLINE CROWNINSHIELD HASCOM. 



IN THE March number of the Cos- 

 7nopolitan of 1894, I read a most in- 

 teresting article about a tame hum- 

 ming-bird. I know a number of 

 people who enjoyed it as much as I, so 

 I feel sure all lovers of pets, especially 

 of birds, will be interested in my story of 

 "Little Billee." I have always been pas- 

 sionatel)' fond of animals a,nd would like 

 to make pets of them all. I have cared 

 the least for birds, (except out of doors) 

 and have known very little about them. 



I have been ill many months, and 

 my family and friends have done all 

 they could to make the days pass as 

 quickly as possible for me. Early in 

 June my mother found a little brown 

 bird which could not have been more 

 than two weeks old. Thinking it 

 might amuse me she brought him up 

 stairs done up in her handkerchief, and 

 I took him inside the bed. After an 

 hour he seemed very happy and not at 

 all afraid. I looked him over care- 

 fully, but found him uninjured. I took 

 him to the open window expecting to 

 see him try to fly away, but he did not 

 seem to have the slightest intention of 

 doing so. From that day to this he 

 has been perfectly devoted to me and 

 my constant companion. At this min- 

 ute he is sitting on the back of my neck 

 dressing his feathers. 



The first day I could not get him to 

 eat an}^thmg until night, when he drank 

 milk from an after-dinner coffee spoon. 

 After that he took little pieces of 

 bread soaked in milk from my tongue 

 or lip. I fed him in that way for sev- 

 eral days, then he would take it out of 

 my fingers. He lived on bread and 

 milk for two weeks. Nowheeats almost 

 everything that I do. All kinds of veg- 

 etables, mushrooms, and ice cream. He 

 likes to sit on my hand or shoulder and 

 take them from my fork. 



I have some kind of nourishment 

 every two hours and Little Billee knows 

 very well when my maid comes into 

 my room with a salver that there is 

 something on it to eat or drink, and he 

 is wild until he gets on my hand or 



shoulder. He drinks milk from my 

 tumblers and will not drink water out 

 of anything but my medicine glass. 

 When Little Billee sees me sit down in 

 the morning with an orange on a plate, 

 he flies upon his cage, then over into 

 my lap, and sits on the first finger of 

 my left hand and eats the orange from 

 my spoon. At first he could not crack 

 his own seeds and as he was very fond 

 of them I used to do it for him. Now 

 he can crack them himself, but he pre- 

 fers eating them outside his cage, and 

 his hemp seed he always brings over 

 and eats on the rug in front of my bed. 



Little Billee is very fond of little or- 

 ange blossom biscuits. I keep some in 

 a tin box under a table by the side of 

 my bed. For several days every time 

 I would reach out of bed and tap on 

 the box Liitle Billee would come run- 

 ning for a piece. One day I was visit- 

 ing with a friend and we forgot all 

 about the bird. Soon we heard rap, 

 tap, tap, pop, pop, pop, and there was 

 Little Billee standing by the box wait- 

 ing for a piece. Since then he comes 

 many times a day. If I send him away 

 with a small piece he returns directly 

 for a large one. 



1 had quite a time teaching him to 

 stay in his cage. The first day I put 

 him in I was afraid he would die of 

 fright. I left the cage on the floor for 

 two days before he ventured in. After 

 he had been going in and out for some 

 time, I closed the door, but he was 

 frightened quite as much as at first, and 

 he would not go near the cage the rest 

 of the day. Finally I tried taking the 

 cage on my lap and shutting him in; he 

 did not seem afraid then and now he 

 does not mind being shut up in the 

 morning when I am in my dressing- 

 room, but he much prefers going in and 

 out at his own sweet will. If I leave 

 him shut up in his cage and go back to 

 bed, he is frantic until he is let out and 

 gets in the bed with me. For the first 

 two weeks he was not happy if he was 

 not on me somewhere. He would sta}- 

 in bed with me for hours at a time, but 



