THE CAGE BIRD AND THE BIRD-FANCIER. 
467 
more. When I came into the courtyard, the whole troop 
would advance to welcome me : the Adjutant would snap 
its beak; the Bustard follow at my heels, uttering the 
while a soft, beautiful note; the Crane would beg for 
food; the Ibises collect round my chair. These last 
flew in and out as they liked, coming into our court¬ 
yard at meal-times, as though they considered that 
the table was laid for them as well as ourselves, and 
lost no opportunity of proving that they were much¬ 
loved guests. Besides these I kept a number of others : 
an Eagle Owl, which I had brought up from the nest; a 
Rhinoceros Hornbill, who divided his affections between a 
monkey and myself, and amused me in a high degree; 
Parrots, Eagles, and Vultures. I was in want of the 
most common necessaries of life; I was destitute, and 
almost starving: when amongst my birds, however, I 
wanted for nothing. The people amid whom I lived did 
not understand my language, though my birds did ! The 
scene of my troubles lay where the White and Blue Niles 
meet, at Kartoom, in the interior of Africa. 
It is most certain that hospitality exercised towards 
birds, whether they be confined or at liberty, produces a 
rich harvest of pleasure. He who has afforded protection 
to the wild birds is sure to look forward to spring with 
increased pleasure ; he who really troubles himself about 
cage birds soon learns their value in his own eyes. 
Many quiet hours spent in their company leave behind 
them reminiscences much more marked than those spent 
in the rush and turmoil of the world’s pleasures. 
The intellectual gain afforded by contact with tame 
birds is immeasurably greater than those which one can 
purchase with money or money’s worth; and it is on this 
account that I believe that it was a feeling of friendship, 
