128 WEST AFRICAN LOVE-BIRD. 



life. Thus a Canary that is kept in solitary confinement to sing in a 

 drawing-room for his master's or mistress's pleasure, will not unfre- 

 quently live for fifteen or twenty years; while another that is kept for 

 breeding purposes, rarely lives more than seven or eight years: and 

 if an old bird, say of six or seven years, is paired for the first time, 

 one season generally kills him, or at farthest two, even if he is an 

 especially strong bird. 



Red-faced Love-birds then cannot be supposed to be an exception 

 to the rule, and if we find them surviving for eight or ten years in 

 the house, we may safely conclude that half that time would have seen 

 their end in their native woods; so that it becomes a question whether 

 "a short life and a merry one" in freedom is not preferable to a pro- 

 longed existence in captivity: we should incline to the belief that it 

 is, but possibly the little prisoners take an opposite view of the case : 

 at least we will hope that they do so. 



