BIRDS I HAVE KEPT. 



CHAPTER I. 



EVER since I was quite a small boy I have kept birds of 

 one sort or another, sometimes a single one, sometimes a 

 number of them, in doors, and out of doors, British and foreign, 

 large and small, birds brought up by hand from the nest, or 

 captured or bought when full grown; I have tamed them, or 

 failing to reconcile them to captivity, have let them go again. 

 I have read a great many books on birds in English, some 

 in French, and a few in German, and plunge, without further 

 apology, in medias res, premising that the fullest particulars 

 will be given for its successful management in the chapter 

 devoted to each bird described; for I have very little faith in 

 "general directions" which I never read, and strongly suspect 

 that very few people do. 



Contrary to the general practice of fanciers, who commence 

 to ride their hobby with a Canary, I started mine with a Jay, 

 which the farmer's boy had taken, along with three or four 

 of its brothers and sisters from their comfortable nest in a 

 pollard oak. I had broken bounds that day, for I was not 

 permitted to associate with the children of the peasant who 

 occupied the farm-house belonging to the chateau where my 

 father resided. I was very lonely by myself, which must be 

 my excuse, and frequently crept to the gvea.t porte-eochere to 



