i82 Bird- Lore 



Those of us who have known, by experience in caring for wounded or sick 

 birds, exactly what incessant watchfulness is necessary to keep them alive, 

 realize how impossible it is that this care should be given them by the aver- 

 age purchaser. 



Birds born and reared in captivity, like the Canary, are the only ones 

 that real humanity should keep behind bars. There is no more condemna- 

 ble habit than allowing children to take nestlings of any kind, and try to 

 feed and rear them; if disaster overtakes the parents, a responsible adult 

 should be the one to endeavor to succor the brood. 



Nominally, the traffic in caged wild birds has ceased; actually, it has not; 

 nor will it until every bird-lover feels himself responsible for staying the 

 hand that would rob the nest, whether it is that of the ignorant little picka- 

 ninny of the South, who climbs up the vine outside the window where 

 you are wintering, and sees in the four young Mockers in the nest just 

 under the sill a prospective dollar, the child at home, who likes to experi- 

 ment for a few days with pets and then forgets them, or the wily dealer^ 

 who sells sub rosa what he dares not exhibit. No quarter to any class who 

 make prisoners of the wild, outside of the Zoological Gardens or private 

 aviaries where the proper conditions exist. 



Any free citizen prefers death to loss of liberty, and even the literalists 

 will, at least, allow this human quality to Citizen Bird, while it proves that 

 he or she who either cages or buys the captive wholly to lack the 

 spiritual quality. 



Should we make prisoners of 



"The ballad -singers and the Troubadours, 



The street musicians of the heavenly city, 

 The birds, who makes sweet music for us all 



In our dark hours, as David did for Saul."? 



— H. W. Longfellow. 



Questions for Teachers and Students 



When does the Indigo bird come in Spring ? How far north does it travel ? How is 

 its color different from the blue of the Jay and Bluebird ? Is the caging of wild birds 

 ever right ? Why was the Indigo bird popular as a pet ? 



