36 Birds I Have Kept. 



but in vain : our attempts to feed the little ones only resulted 

 in driving them from the shelter of their nest, to set them 

 hopping ahout, in a tottering uncertain manner, all over the 

 table, whence one or two of the biggest fluttered on to the 

 floor. 



There chanced to be an old cage in the house, and fortu- 

 nately the bars were very close together; so taking up the 

 nest, and spreading it out carefully, my mother placed it on 

 the bottom of the cage, and put the little birds into it again: 

 there they soon settled themselves down, with their heads aU 

 turned one way. 



"Perhaps they will let us feed them by and bye, when 

 they get hungry?" said my mother, stepping outside on to 

 the terrace as she spoke, where she perceived the old birds 

 in a tree opposite the kitchen window, and a happy thought 

 struck her that if she put the cage there, the parents would 

 feed the little ones until they were able to fly. No sooner 

 said than done: her surmise proved to be correct, for the 

 parents immediately began to feed their hungry brood, and 

 continued to do so assiduously for more than a week, when 

 the latter refused their attentions, and by incessantly pecking 

 at the nest, the bars of the cage, and each other, showed 

 plainly that they considered themselves capable of providing 

 for their own wants. 



As they could not get food for themselves, and would not 

 take what was offered to them, either by their parents, or by 

 us, we had no alternative but to open their door and let them 

 fly away, for we could not see them starve. They very soon 

 availed themselves of the permission given them to escape, and 

 it was a pretty sight to see them, one after the other, hop 

 out of the cage among the branches of the lime tree, where 

 their father and mother were anxiously awaiting them, and 

 then to see the party of nine fly off in single file into the 

 woods, from whence not one of them ever returned to thank 

 us for our hospitality. 



