THE STORY OF LITTLE BILLEE, 
CAROLINE CROWNI NSHIELD BASCOM. 
IN THE March number of the Cos- 
mopolitan of 1894, I read a most in- 
teresting article about a tame hum- 
ming-bird. I know a number of 
people who enjoyed it as much as I, so 
I feel sure all lovers of pets, especially 
of birds, will be interested in my story of 
''Little Billee." I have always been pas- 
sionately fond of animals and would like 
to make pets of them all. I have cared 
the least for birds, (except out of doors) 
and have known very little about them. 
I have been ill many months, and 
my family and friends have done all 
they could to make the days pass as 
quickly as possible for me. Early in 
June my mother found a little brown 
bird which could not have been more 
than two weeks old. Thinking it 
might amuse me she brought him up 
stairs done up in her handkerchief, and 
I took him inside the bed. After an 
hour he seemed very happy and not at 
all afraid. I looked him over care- 
fully, but found him uninjured. I took 
him to the open window expecting to 
see him try to fly away, but he did not 
seem to have the slightest intention of 
doing so. From that day to this he 
has been perfectly devoted to me and 
my constant companion. At this min- 
ute he is sitting on the back of my neck 
dressing his feathers. 
The first day I could not get him to 
eat anything until night, when he drank 
milk from an after-dinner coffee spoon. 
After that he took little pieces of 
bread soaked in milk from my tongue 
or lip. I fed him in that way for sev- 
eral days, then he would take it out of 
my fingers. He lived on bread and 
milk for two weeks. Nowheeats almost 
everything that I do. All kinds of veg- 
etables, mushrooms, and ice cream. He 
likes to sit on my hand or shoulder and 
take them from my fork. 
I have some kind of nourishment 
every two hours and Little Billee knows 
very well when my maid comes into 
my room with a salver that there is 
something on it to eat or drink, and he 
is wild until he gets on my hand or 
shoulder. He drinks milk from my 
tumblers and will not drink water out 
of anything but my medicine glass. 
When Little Billee sees me sit down in 
the morning with an orange on a plate, 
he flies upon his cage, then over into 
my lap, and sits on the first finger of 
my left hand and eats the orange from 
my spoon. At first he could not crack 
his own seeds and as he was very fond 
of them I used to do it for him. Now 
he can crack them himself, but he pre- 
fers eating them outside his cage, and 
his hemp seed he always brings over 
and eats on the rug in front of my bed. 
Little Billee is very fond of little or- 
ange blossom biscuits. I keep some in 
a tin box under a table by the side of 
my bed. For several days every time 
I would reach out of bed and tap on 
the box Little Billee would come run- 
ning for a piece. One day I was visit- 
ing with a friend and we forgot all 
about the bird. Soon we heard rap, 
tap, tap, pop, pop, pop, and there was 
I Little Billee standing by the box wait- 
i ing for a piece. Since then he comes 
I many times a day. If I send him away 
i with a small piece he returns directly 
I for a large one. 
I had quite a time teaching him to 
stay in his cage. The first day I put 
I him in I was afraid he would die of 
j fright. I left the cage on the floor for 
two days before he ventured in. After 
he had been going in and out for some 
time, I closed the door, but he was 
frightened quite as much as at first, and 
he would not go near the cage the rest 
of the day. Finally I tried taking the 
cage on my lap and shutting him in; he 
did not seem afraid then and now he 
does not mind being shut up in the 
morning when I am in my dressing- 
room, but he much prefers going in and 
out at his own sweet will. If I leave 
j him shut up in his ca?e and go back to 
bed. he is frantic until he is let out and 
gets in the bed with me. For the first 
two weeks he was not happy if he was 
not on me somewhere. He would stay- 
in bed with me for hours at a time, but 
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