OUR HOME BIRDS. 
137 
and will sing in confinement. It has even been 
taught, too, to utter some words quite distinctly; 
and a foreign bird of this species, which had been 
brought up near a hospital that happened to be in 
the neighborhood of a parade-ground, proved himself 
quite a mimic, often coughing, groaning, and moan- 
ing, as he heard the patients do, and then calling out 
vociferously, like the commanding officer on parade, 
‘ Halt !’ while he perfectly imitated the jingling of 
the ramrods. Another one would inform the ques- 
tioner that its name was Charlie; and it never failed 
to pronounce every word in any language with which 
it was tried. 
“ It is always pleasant to hear of a cat's disap- 
pointment when she has evil intentions with regard 
to birds. Once this enemy of the feathered tribe 
was seen on the top of a paled fence eying a black- 
bird’s nest that had been made quite near it. The 
poor little bird-mother, half frightened to death, and 
not in the least knowing what to do, flew off the nest 
and got almost within the cat’s reach, uttering the 
most piteous screams of wildness and despair. Pres- 
ently, her mate appeared, and at first he screamed 
too, and flew wildly about, often settling on the fence 
just in front of the cat, who, not having wings, could 
not spring at him for fear of losing her footing. Be- 
fore long, however, the male bird sprang at the cat, 
