CHAPTER III 



Becoming an Illustrator 



A FTER three years of birdless estate I was 

 /% so homesick for my former friends that I 

 J^ ^ determined again to surround myself with 

 a bevy of my favourite birds. Having estabhshed 

 a home of my own one of the first considerations 

 that came to me was how to fill the houses I still 

 carried with me. The solution of my problem 

 was under way when a niece of mine sent me a 

 green linnet, produced by interbreeding with the 

 canary tribe, a Harz mountain singer carefully 

 trained. My first thought was to secure a mate 

 for him. Through inquiry a neighbour was found 

 who wanted to sell a hen canary having pure yellow 

 colour with white beak and feet, brilliant black 

 eyes, not a discoverable feather off colour. I 

 immediately paid a rather exorbitant price for 

 her and introduced her to my linnet. Theirs was 

 a case of love at first sight. The nest was made 

 by me from a collar box, a piece of white flannel, 

 and some cotton padding. While the birds were 

 busy with the affairs of housekeeping I had a 

 house built for them at a factory in Cincinnati. It 

 was six feet high, four long and three wide, the 



35 



