10 
INTRODUCTION. 
attention must be paid to this particular circumstance, as 
scarcely a bud can be preserved for any length of time with 
all its toes uninjured. It is not to be denied, however, that 
many birds keep themselves exceedingly neat, whilst others, 
even of the same genus, are so uncleanly, that they are not 
only always soiling themselves, but never clean their feet, 
beak, nor wings. 
Some bird fanciers take delight in making birds so tame as 
to be taken upon the hand into the open air, or to be allowed 
to fly away and come back again upon a call. 44 One of my 
friends,” says Dr. Bechstein , 44 who has tamed birds as well as 
otters, adders, foxes, weasels, and martins, so that they would 
follow him upon a sign given, adopts the following easy and 
certain method to effect it:—When he wishes to accustom a 
bird to fly abroad, or to go out with him perched upon his 
finger or his shoulder, he first teases it with a soft feather in 
its cage which stands open. The bird soon snaps at the feather, 
and then at his finger, and it will then come out of the cage, and 
perch upon the extended finger; he immediately strokes it, 
and lays a few choice morsels before it. These, the bird will 
soon take out of the hand itself. He then commences by 
familiarising the bird with some peculiar call or whistle, and 
he carries it, as soon as it permits itself to be grasped in the 
hand, placed upon his hand or shoulder, from chamber to 
chamber, taking care to close the doors and windows; he then 
suffers it to fly, and calls it back again. As soon as it attends 
to this call without being scared or frightened, he takes it 
cautiously into the open air, and thus the bird becomes 
gradually so accustomed to him that he can carry it abroad or 
into company without its offering to fly away.” 
Care, however, must be taken not to carry adult birds, which 
have been thus tamed, into the open air where they can hear 
their fellows, in the spring or at pairing time, which are 
| usually the periods when they show indications of resuming 
their native wildness. 
If it is wished to teach a bird to eat out of the mouth, it 
must be kept for a time in the cage without food, and then ^ 
