Song Birds And How to Keep Them

ught last spring, is in voice the sweetest of Woodlarks ; and as in disposition it is the vainest and most affectionate of Canary birds, it is delightful to sec its happiness and to hear its song when it sits bending down, fairly singing at one. 6. The warbler tribe, as its name implies, includes most of our sweetest songsters ; Nightingales and Blackcaps, Eobin Redbreasts and Jenny Wrens, White- Throats and Garden Warblers ; all these are included, while Larks may be reckoned with them as regards the practical difficulties and objections to their being kept in cages. Neither the Larks, Wrens, nor Robins leave this country, however, in winter, as the others do. For those like the Nightingale, who are birds of passage, it is a great aggravation of their many miseries to be prevented going; and they die in great numbers when the time of migration comes. I say an aggravation?but think of a Lark incaged ! There is a quiet remark in Bechstein quoted by most bird- writers, that Woodlarks seldom live more than one year in prison; and that the cause of their death is " commonly a broken leg." This is too suggestive for keeping Woodlarks happily, and I am glad to say that I have never had cue, and cannot describe them, therefore. 7. But for the gold-crest Wrens?loveliest of small birds, our English humming birds; they are happy enough in a latticed bell cage, closely covered in winter with green baize at night, perches wrapped in flannel, and all sorts of luxuries in... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.