46 HOMING VaTU THE BIRDS 



ever had sung with the violin or piano, so my con- 

 cert never really materialized before an audience. 



At this time I had also a pair of cardinals that 

 had come around the house in a half -starved con- 

 dition during a severe winter of unusual cold and 

 deep snow, so that I enticed them inside in order to 

 feed and take care of them. By spring they had 

 grown so tame that I added them to my bird friends, 

 but among all of them the oriole was my constant 

 companion, my best loved bird. One day, for- 

 getting that he was free, I stepped from a door and 

 was slow about closing the screen behind me. A 

 burst of jubilant notes above me first told me what 

 I had done. I stood heartsick and watched my 

 bird circle up and up, higher than I ever had seen 

 any wild oriole fly. Then he slowly descended in 

 curves and alighted on my head. I walked in- 

 doors, carrying him with me, but the mischief had 

 been done. His exuberant joy in that short 

 flight had been too apparent. From that day, I 

 began training him to become self-supporting, 

 and soon I gave him and the cardinals their free- 

 dom. 



That same summer I lost the grosbeak through 

 fatty degeneration. I discovered one morning 

 that he was sick, and taking him from his cage for 

 an examination, I was surprised at the size and 

 weight of his body in my hand; while on blowing 

 apart his feathers to discover the condition of his 

 skin, I found that he resembled nothing so much 



