118 
Birds and Flowers . 
in the same cage, they really quarrelled fright- 
fully, and yet if we ever carried one out of the 
room leaving the other behind, there was such a 
noise and crying, you would think the birds broken- 
hearted ! They chose to live in two cages at each 
end of a chimney-piece, across which they con- 
versed. 
Then sometimes you find a crusty bird, who 
won’t live with any one ! This is the case with a 
Goldfinch of mine. He keeps his own cage to him- 
self, and drives all intruders out of it, and if we let 
him loose with a flight of other birds in the room, 
he flies back at once to his own cage and drives 
away all others. A very bold little fellow indeed 
is Master Fidd, for when his cage stood on the 
window-sill a short time ago, my big grey cock came 
outside and crowed, and looked very hard at the 
seed and biscuit, and Master Fidd forthwith went 
up to his highest perch, and opened his wings, and 
shook them, and scolded poor Mr. Dorking in a 
most reckless manner. But those birds which 
“show character,” and have funny ways of their 
own, are, I think, invariably those which are 
brought up tame. I have a perfect horror of 
catching wild birds, and any one who considers it 
will, I am sure, agree with me. I have myself, in 
