30



Miss D. Hamilton,



RECOLLECTIONS OF SOME BIRD FRIENDS.


By Miss D. Hamilton.


From my earliest years I was taught to love all living

creatures But I was also told that it was cruel to keep birds in

cages, so that my first feathered pets came to me as it were by

accident.


The first bird I ever possessed was one of a pair of per¬

forming Bullfinches which my mother bought because she

thought they were being cruelly coerced into showing off their

accomplishments. I cannot remember that they did any tricks

while with us, but I was very small then, and I may have

forgotten.


The next bird to join our family circle was a one-legged

Coal-tit. He (and a pair of white rats) was given to my sister

and me by a young Genevese gentleman who was going to

America, and had to leave his pets behind. He had rescued the

bird from a trap some months before. It was very tame, and he

told us to feed it on bread and milk and crushed hemp seed,

which we did, nothing doubting, and the bird throve!

Fortunately, being so tame, we let him out a good deal, both in

the rooms and in the greenhouse, so no doubt he found food for

himself, more to his own liking. I well remember how, in the

summer holidays, we children got more invitations to tea than

ever before, and each one said “ Please bring your bird with you,

our chalet is black with flies.” So Timothy went in his cage, and

had a good tea like the rest of us. Poor bird—he had a tragic

end, tlio’, in a way, a natural one. Besides our bird and rats we

took back with us to Geneva a pair of marmots which a friendly

guide had captured for us during our holiday in the Alps. The

Coal-tit was loose in the greenhouse, and so were the marmots,

and one of them made a meal of him. We never cared for the

marmots after that, so we gave them to Mr. Rothschild’s game-

keeper, who was a kind and much envied friend of ours at that

time : envied because of all the wonderful animals he had the

care of, and which we were allowed to visit on our Thursday

half-holidays.


Another of the pets of our youth was some great Hawk



