:8o 



OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



an aviary. But how can we 

 describe in this hmited space 

 the numerous exotic birds that 

 ought to be in it ? We cannot 

 even enumerate them, but 

 must pass to their larger 

 comrades, the parrots and 

 cockatoos. 



VIII. Parrots and 

 Cockatoos 



The first recorded informa- 

 tion that we have about par- 

 rots is in a description of a 

 wagtail is an ornament to the aviary, the same festival given at Alexandria in Egypt two hun- 

 cannot be said of the white species, which man dred and eighty-four years before Christ. In 

 is not allowed to catch in most countries. the reign of Alexander the Great they were 



The bnnvni lark {Ant/iits pennsylvanicus) brought from Egypt to Greece. In Rome they 

 is found throughout North America, but is were articles of luxury, exchanged sometimes 

 accidental in Europe. People say that the lark for a slave. The cooked heads of parrots made 

 is well fitted for cage life simply because they a feast for Heliogabalus and his lions, who re- 

 want to enjoy its ravishing song. This is not ceived their share, as they likewise did of 

 so. Of all the birds of heaven it should be 



The Lark 



free ; only then can the full beauty of its 

 song be known. 



Hail to thee, blithe spirit ! 



Bird thou never wert. 

 That from heaven, or near it, 

 I'ourest thy full heart 

 In profu.se strains of unpremeditated art. 



Teach me half the gladness 

 That thy soul must know, 

 Such harmonious madness 

 From mv lips would flow. 

 The world would listen then as I am listening now. 



The spring without larks is no spring at 

 all, and though they make their nests close 

 to tlie ground they rise very high in the 

 air to announce triumphantly the day's re- 

 newal. But sweetest of all is it to hear 

 them in the ojien country when " the pale 

 IHirple e\'ening melts around their flight." 

 Those wlio choose may keep them many 

 years in cages if fed on seeds, verdure of 

 various kinds, and roots, with plenty of sand 

 or tiu'f on the floor of the cage. 



The songstei's and whistlers that we 

 have now mentioned will not betrin to fill 



The Goldfinch 



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