071 Recollections of so?ne Bird Frie7ids.



33



I paid him man}- visits and seldom came away without some

new bird. A pair of Greenfinches, a Twite, a Yellow-hammer,

a Blue-tit, and a Hawfinch took up their abode with me ;

and last, but not least, a Crossbill, glorious in his red plumage,

and singing a sweet little song. Of all my then birds (excepting

the Robin, who was cheeky and confiding, as is their wont,

and the Blue-tit, whose life was alas ! a very brief one) the

Crossbill was far and away my favourite. For him, week by

week, my sisters in Switzerland used to send me packets of

fir-cones (the two-penny sample post was still in existence then)

and I was never tired of watching him force them open, and

take out the tiny seeds, with his strange beak, so wonderfully

adapted to the purpose. He could gnaw wood like any Parrot,

and quite spoiled the beauty of his mahogany cage. When I had

had him about a year he moulted, and tho’ his new feathers came

sleek and bright they were a sage-green colour instead of the

brilliant red they had been before. The bird seemed as well as

ever at that time, and I was told the change in colour occurs

even in wild birds. I wonder if that is so? and why? Besides

the fir cones, my Crossbill was exceedingly fond of hemp and

sunflower seed, and I fear I may have given him too much of

them. For, to my great sorrow, the poor bird seemed to have

some brain attack, which left him blind, and paralysed in both

his feet. He could not perch, and when he tried to move he only

went round and round in a circle. For weeks he lived on the

floor of his cage, his seed scattered in a ring round him, and a

shallow drinking pan close by. At last, when I had to leave

home, and could not take the bird with me, sooner than trust

him to the tender mercies of servants -who might forget his

needs, I chloroformed him myself. His plumage was perfect,

and he was quite fat.


Up to this time I had kept none but British birds owing

to the fact that all my summer holidays were spent in Switzerland,

and I could not take my birds with me. Therefore, at the

beginning of the summer, I used to take them into the country,

as far from human habitation as I could, and there let them fly.

My father usually accompanied me on these expeditious, which

were always most enjoyable to me, and I hope to the birds also.


(To be coiithiued ).



