NOTES ON THE HABITS OF SOME CAGED BIRDS. 221 



calmed down and seemed to get to know us in the ordinary 

 frightened bird fashion. Curiosity and intelligence are nearly 

 equivalent in birds, as in reality curiosity is, in certain forms, 

 a desire of knowledge ; so the first sign of intelligence from this 

 bird was a great excitement at a teetotum (top) which was spun 

 near his cage. He ran from side to side ; he stood up and 

 craned his neck to see. As an experiment, the door of the cage 

 was opened, and after a little hesitation the Canary came out 

 and went to the spinning top. He then touched it lightly with 

 his beak, but retired very nervously and quickly on feeling the 

 contact. We were struck by this unusual conduct on the part 

 of a bird, and opened the door of his cage and let him out 

 several times a day. His education progressed rapidly ; we 

 soon tempted him to feed from our hands, then to fly on our 

 fingers and shoulders. Finally he would perch on our heads, 

 hands, or shoulders, and remain quiet while we walked from 

 room to room ; play with and pull out a handkerchief from the 

 breast pocket of a coat ; fly on to a finger when he was called. 

 The greatest proof of tameness he gave was in his allowing 

 himself to be caught with the hand without the least difficulty ; 

 birds greatly dislike contact with the hand. In short, he was as 

 entertaining a companion as an intelligent dog. 



Encouraged by our success with the Canary, we bought a 

 Bed-breasted Linnet (Linota cannabina). We never succeeded 

 in teaching him to do anything, except to give a very pretty call 

 of satisfaction on receiving a hemp-seed, which we had to place 

 on his perch, and even then he would not eat it till we had 

 retired to a safe distance. After some time he struck up a 

 friendship with the Canary ; but he was a heavy unintelligent 

 bird, who liked- to sit still and think. It was amusing to watch 

 the two birds together ; the Canary would wait till the Linnet 

 was quiet, and then gently sidle up to him and nibble his toes. 

 The Linnet would placidly retire to another perch, and again 

 the same process was gone through, till the Canary was tired. 

 Sometimes they were placed in separate cages, and then if one 

 was allowed out he would go and visit the other ; if both were 

 out, they would hop about the floor picking up stray seed, but 

 always keeping close together. 



To these we added a Bedpoll (Lesser Bedpoll, Linota 



