OUR HOME BIRDS. 
113 
them, only this one lived. I taught it to feed from 
my mouth, and it would often alight on my finger 
and strike the end of it with its bill until I raised 
it to my mouth, when it would insert its bill and 
open my lips by using the upper and lower mandi- 
bles as levers, and take out whatever I might have 
there for it. 
“ ‘ In winter, spring, and autumn I kept a little 
cage, lined with cotton batting, for the bird to pass 
the night in ; and toward evening it would leave its 
large cage and fly to this. After entering, if I did 
not close up the aperture with cotton, it would do 
so itself by pulling the cotton from the sides of 
the cage, until it had shut up all the openings for 
the cold to enter. 
“ 4 1 fed it with sponge-cake, and when this became 
dry and hard, and it wanted some softer, it would 
make its wants known to me by its look and note ; 
and if I did not very soon attend to it, it would take 
up a piece of the hard cake, carry it to the saucer 
of water and drop it in, and move it about until it 
was sufficiently soft to be eaten. 
“ 4 In very cold weather the bird would leave the 
cage, fly to me, run under my cape and place itself 
on my neck. Constantly during the day, when it 
was at liberty, it would perch on my finger, and 
draw my needle and thread from me when I was sew- 
10 * II 
