THE ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF 



CANARIES AND CAGE-BIRDS. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL. 



^ HE longing for something to protect and care for is one of the 

 strongest feelings implanted within us, and one outcome of it 

 is the desire to keep animals under our control, which in its 

 due place is, undoubtedly, one of our healthiest instincts. From 

 what it arises, other than being a wise gift, we will not stay to 

 inquire ; but that the desire does exist, in a greater or less 

 degree, in all of us, and that in many it is a strongly-marked 

 peculiarity, few will venture to deny. It is true that the lower 

 animals are all placed in subjection to man ; but the dis- 

 position to which we refer is not one born of any desire to 

 subdue or destroy, being rather the offspring of some tenderer 

 chord in our nature which impels us to make friends of them, 

 to break down some of the barriers which separate us, to study 

 their habits and attend to their wants, subordinating the whole 

 We know that man is in a certain degree a predatory animal, 

 and that an element in our character, different from the higher trait to which we have 

 referred, enters into the case of those who indulge in what, for want of a better word, is 

 known as sport ; but even in the field something very like an intimate friendship and intelligent 

 confidence is cemented between us and animals which are made to subserve the pursuit of 

 what is, possibly, a legitimate end, though sensitive minds may question its morality. 



A feeling akin to this predatory disposition may be seen in the eagerness with which 

 some village urchin expends his energies in the construction of snares, or the primitive 

 brick-trap — that most picturesque of all traps — or steals stealthily along through copse or 

 by hedgerow, armed with crossbow or other clumsy contrivance of home manufacture, knowing 

 no fatigue and despising every obstacle, happy if only by the exercise of patience and skill 

 he can compass the death or capture of even one small bird. To him, the advent of winter, 

 with its frost and snow and long dark nights, means the arrival of his sporting season, when, 

 impelled by hunger, his " game " leaves its usual haunts and seeks the homestead by day, or 

 affords him by night all the excitement and glories of netting the sheltered sides of stacks, the 



to their and our advantage. 



