IRatiue IRotes : 
Zhe Selbovne Society’s ill>aoa5ine 
No. 85. JANUARY, 1897. Vol. VIII. 
A TRIO OF VOCALISTS. 
is not often possible to study the habits of such birds 
as nightingales, blackcaps, and whitethroats, when 
perfectly at ease and therefore free to show their 
natural characteristics. As it happens, I am able to 
do this, since I possess a perfectly tame specimen of each of 
these birds. It is one of my favourite amusements to let them 
all three out of their cages, and whilst I am quietly writing I 
watch their behaviour towards each other. Lest I should be 
blamed for keeping such birds in captivit)' I must explain how 
they came into my possession. 
The whitethroat is my beloved “ Fairy,” who appealed to me 
five years ago as a feather less orphan outside the window, and, 
happy as a bird can be, she certainly would think it the height 
of cruelty to be turned adrift into the woods. I have learned by 
several rather sad experiences that to let any creature which 
has been long in captivity suddenly have its liberty out of doors, 
and so force it to find its own food, is at best a doubtful kindness, 
and generally leads to a miserable end. 
Wild birds and animals have a rare instinct for finding out 
an interloper, and they spend their best energies in pursuing the 
intruder until they have persecuted it to death. One winter I 
was delighted to see a ring-ousel on the lawn and hoped it 
would stay, but alas ! the blackbirds gave it no peace ; they flew 
at it continually and drove it from place to place till it was 
compelled to seek shelter outside my domains. 
Besides this bird-boycotting, there is the food difficulty. A 
bird that has been used to have all its wants supplied and has 
lived an entirely artificial life is much to be pitied when set free, 
for, having probably lost the appetite for its natural food, and 
being unable to find that to which it has become accustomed, 
