Foreign Birds . 
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rible birds for washing — in fact they like to be 
bathing almost hourly. And when one is so 
polite as to provide an elegant bath for their ac- 
commodation, meaning it as a hint that birds should 
not wash in drinking glasses, they ignore the 
motive and only bathe the more. The song they 
sing is very sweet though shrill; it is not very 
unlike a Robin’s, and though extremely short is 
repeated very often, the whole row of small birds 
singing sometimes in turn. 
I don’t think they are very affectionate birds to 
their owner, though amongst each other they are. 
I have known a little couple seem very dismal 
when one was sent away to complete another set, 
and that one was so sad too, that its mistress 
kindly sent it back home again, when the meeting 
seemed to afford extreme delight to both parties. 
These birds require a good deal of warmth. 
Their cages should be always covered up at night 
with green baize, some people even give them 
wadded curtains. It is a very good plan to sur- 
round the cage with glass on two or three sides, or 
all round, both to keep the seed and water from 
splashing out, and to shelter the birds a little from 
draughts, which are very bad for them. 
They ought besides, if possible, to be prevented 
