INTRODUCTION. 
11 
fuse the present, as my friend was going 
abroad ; and to set them quite at liberty 
would have been greater cruelty than keep- 
ing them, and attending to all their wants. 
Some of thdm had been bred in a cage, and 
others had been taken from their nests before 
they were quite fledged ; consequently all were 
so tame that they would have had no chance 
if turned loose amongst the wild birds ; I 
therefore determined to make their captivity 
as easy to them as possible. For this pur- 
pose, I appropriated a room for their use, 
which looked into the garden here I intro- 
duced several large plants, such as rose-trees, 
myrtles, box, fuchsia, and the like, together 
with pots of groundsel, chickweed, plantain, 
and different little herbs that birds delight in, 
with pans of water for them to drink out of, 
* The windows should have wire lattice-work outside the 
glass to admit air, when the window may be kept constantly- 
open in warm weather, without fear of the birds escaping. 
