138 
BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
a little bird can quote with approval. . . . This is 
decidedly bitter — and yet — yes, it does leave a 
pleasant flavour on the palate. . . . Make room for 
me there — or I shall make you — and let me taste 
it again. . . . Yes, I fancy I can remember eating 
something like this in a former state of existence, 
aojes and ao^es ao^o." And so on, and so on, until 
I began to imagine that the whole thing had been 
put right, and that the uncomfortable feeling would 
return to trouble me the more. But at the rate 
they are devouring their green stuff there will not 
be a leaf, scarcely a stem left, in another hour ; and 
then ? Why, then they will have the naked wires of 
their cage all round them to protect them from the 
cat, and for hunger there will be seed in the box. 
After all, then, what a little I have been able to 
do ! But I flatter myself that if they were mine I 
should do more. I never keep captive birds, but 
if they were given to me, and I could not refuse, 
I should do a great deal more for them. All my 
knowledge of their ways and their requirements 
would teach me how to make their caged existence 
less unlike the old natural life than it now is. To 
begin the ameliorating process, I should place them 
in a large cage, large enough to allow space for 
flight, so that they might fly to and fro, a few feet 
each way, and rest their little feet from continual 
perching. That would enable them to exercise their 
