14 INTRODUCTION. 
nets, a blackbird, two chaffinches, and a red- 
pole. The harmony of these lovely song- 
sters fully repaid me for the trouble of attend- 
ing to them. It was impossible to imagine 
anything more exquisitely enchanting than 
the music of these feathered warblers. Early 
in the morning, it sounded to my ears like 
a grand chorus of heavenly tones, chanting 
in praise of the Maker and Bestower of all 
that is good and lovely. 
The following year I had an increase in 
my little family, some of the birds having 
made nests in the shrubs, and brought up 
their young ones ; but as I did not wish to 
increase my stock, I gave them away when 
they no longer required a mother's care, with 
the proviso that they were not to be caged. 
The five or six years that I kept my birds on 
the above plan, I lost but four by death. 
After that period, circumstances of a family 
nature occasioned me to remove to the neigh- 
