. My pets; real happenings in my aviary . look as if they were trying toraise tiny yellow beards. One day I got one of these aviary-hatched youngones and put him in a cage. He was not frightened,but he was so puzzled at my action that he did notknow what to do. What was the cage anyway, andwhat were the perches for? It never seemed tooccur to him to light on them. He clung uncom-fortably to the side of the cage till I at last took pityon him and let him fly out to the trees of the aviary. The number of nests that the canaries made didnot embarrass me, but what should I do with theeggs. I could
. My pets; real happenings in my aviary . look as if they were trying toraise tiny yellow beards. One day I got one of these aviary-hatched youngones and put him in a cage. He was not frightened,but he was so puzzled at my action that he did notknow what to do. What was the cage anyway, andwhat were the perches for? It never seemed tooccur to him to light on them. He clung uncom-fortably to the side of the cage till I at last took pityon him and let him fly out to the trees of the aviary. The number of nests that the canaries made didnot embarrass me, but what should I do with theeggs. I could not treat them as I did the pigeoneggs, and I was not willing to raise young birds andgive to friends to put in tiny cages. I at last hitupon the expedient of visiting my canary nests every 189 My Pets few days, and taking out a certain number of eggstill they were all gone. The canaries did not caremuch about eating them, but Dan, the mockingbird,was delighted to have fresh eggs for breakfast, andwould dart upon them with avidity. 190. CHAPTER XX CANARY CHARACTERISTICS AMONG my canaries were two hybrids, whowere half-goldfinch and half-canary. Theywere fine, dark birds, more like their wild parentthan their domesticated one. While I had my farm I let all my wild birds flyaway, except old Bob, the robin. I deliberatedabout the hybrids, and finally decided to let themtake their choice, so after keeping them on the farmfor a year I one day opened the door and told oneof them that he might fly away with the goldfinches,purple finches, and other birds I had just released. He went happily, and I heard later that he hadcalled at a farmhouse farther down the road. I 191 My Pets hope that he found his wild kindred and migratedwith them. I did not know whether to let the otherone go or not. He was a fierce little creature, witha beautifully marked goldfinch back, but his spiritwas Norwichs—that is, the nervous part of it was never cruel. He had in addition to thismental e
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