2774 The Zoologist — October, 1871. 



who has studied and mastered the sailors' vocabulary ; no gold- 

 finch who can draw water or fire a cannon ; no canary who sings 

 so loud that his cage must be covered by a pocket-handkerchief to 

 fiighten him into silence ; no sky lark quivering his wings on a 

 circular turf; yet 1 am quite willing to admit that these are the 

 most popular of Cage Birds. On the other hand, I possess a little 

 flock of bedcherrygahs [Melopsittacus undulatus) "to the manner 

 born," that is, hatched in my own cocoa-nut husk ; a little flock of 

 yellow wagtails {Motacilla cainpestris); a little flock of tree sparrows, 

 breeding like rabbits and as mischievous as monkeys, and interfering 

 with everybody — i, e. bird body ; also some ground-searching reed- 

 sparrows, restless bramblings, shy cirl buntings, a solitary ortolan, 

 and a iew others ; not one out of the number possessed of any 

 trick or accomplishmeut whatever. I derive great pleasure from 

 watching the proceedings of this little family, as I sit in ray chair, 

 motionless as a statue, while they exhibit their various " ways and 

 manners," without the slightest restraint. They seem particularly 

 happy in being allowed to conduct their own loves and quarrels in 

 their own way, without any interference of mine. Now this is a 

 sight that only a cage can afford ; you can never enjoy it when the 

 birds are entirely at liberty. The only aim you need have is to 

 make imprisonment as much like liberty and as agreeable as 

 possible ; and I have succeeded in making it so agreeable that 

 little prisoners who have occasionally escaped continue to haunt 

 the premises until readmitted : this is particularly the case with 

 redpolls and twites. 



But I am keeping Mr. Keulemans waiting, and I am very 

 desirous that he should speak for himself, and lay before my 

 readers a sample of his own wares. I ought to say that there is 

 no attempt at a scientific arrangement of the species, but each 

 seems to appear when he has made its history complete. I will 

 quote the natural history of the gray parrot, as a good example of 

 the manner in which each bird is treated : I neither add nor omit 

 anything. 



" Of all the foreign cage-birds that decorate and enliven our dwellings, 

 few are more common or better known than the grey parrot. Large 

 numbers are being continually brought to Europe from their native wilds, 

 and at some places — Lisbon, for instance — they may be seen in large 

 numbers at the bird-shops, but nowhere is the grey parrot more frequently 

 found as a cage-bird than in London. 



