DISPOSITION. 
161 
—fell dead from tlie perch—poor little creature ! Its joy 
at its friend’s return had been too much for it! Of the 
Bullfinch, so abused for its stupidity, I had the following 
anecdote related to me from a reliable source—quite the 
converse of the latter, it may be considered corroborative 
of it. A Bullfinch belonging to a young lady was so tame 
that it was allowed to fly about the room, feed out of her 
hand, and return to its cage of its own accord. One 
afternoon its mistress was prevented by pressing business 
from taking notice of the bird, in spite of its blandish¬ 
ments : the lady was at last so disturbed by the bird flying 
hither and thither that she was obliged to shut it up in 
its cage, and, as the bird appeared so miserable, covered 
it over with a cloth. The Bullfinch begged and prayed in 
touching tones for freedom, which, however, was not 
accorded to it; till at last it became perfectly still, ruffled 
its feathers and died of rage, as the former did of joy! 
Many other similar anecdotes could be told, if neces¬ 
sary, but the disposition of birds shows itself to us daily 
and in a hundred different ways, and yet all our obser¬ 
vation can only assist us in comprehending but a trifling 
portion of the spiritual life of these bright happy children 
of the air! What is passing within that little heart! 
Would we were children again, for then we could joyously 
and unhesitatingly believe the following stanza :— 
“ O Du Kindermund, o Du Kindermund, 
Unbewusster Weisheit froh, 
Vogelsprachekund, Vogelsprachekund, 
Wie Salomo.” 
But, unfortunately, we are only in a position to 
surmise where we fancy we know, and to guess where 
we might possess perfect knowledge! Still the little 
that we do know is fully sufficient to afford us convincing 
