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Birds and Flowers. 
used to listen for your voice each morning, and to 
hop about quite delighted when it sees you coming, 
taking seeds out of your fingers, and scolding you 
even, as my Fidd” does me, if you are too slow ! 
and some day, you go in, and it is all stiff in its 
cage ; and then to your horror you see that the 
water-glass is quite dry, or that the seed-tin is 
empty, and the poor little pet is starved. I have 
heard of birds being starved too with plenty of 
food in sight — some one perhaps goes rushing to 
feed a bird, and they are in a great hurry and 
don’t fit the tins in properly ; and I have known 
my own birds get quite hoarse and ill in a few 
hours from such a thing. Mine did not suffer 
much, because I soon heard them call — but think 
if I had been out ! You see it will not do to begin 
to have pet birds unless you feel quite sure of 
taking proper care of them. We have no right to 
make things wretched for our amusement ; and 
unless we feel quite secure, we must not run the 
risk of it. 
One person should always be answerable for the 
feeding. And there should be always a fixed time 
for doing it. It is a very good plan, for instance, 
if the bird is kept in a different place at night and 
in the day, to feed and clean it always when you 
