My Birds in Freedom & Captivity (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...is more, popped through the open window as easily, and lived happily ever afterwards. At least I hope so / never saw him again; ungrateful little bird His little brother survived only a year, after which time, he turned up his little toes. He was the jolliest little bird, without the slightest fear, and full of curiosity, always peering through the bars of his cage to see what was going on outside. His gold crown appeared with his first autumnal moult; until then his head was a dull green along with his body. When alarmed in any way he could compress the feathers of his crest until there was only a tiny streak of saffron yellow edged with black. At other times it would widen out and show very 4 plainly what he was. Whole mealworms were too big for him, so I used to scald them, and squeeze out the insides, which come away quite easily from within the skin. The little gold-crest used to cling to the bars of his cage and peck out the contents as I held the skin in my fingers. Such an operation may sound very nasty, but food for birds must be studied as much as food for human beings; and squeezing out mealworms' interiors isn't half so nasty as doing something of that sort to rabbits that are to be cooked for our dinners. " Oh la, la " as the French say. The structure of a golden-crested wren's nest is very wonderful--quite as wonderful as that of another kind of Wren, of which there was only one, and that was Regulus christopheros, which, though at first sight may appear to mean a crested wren, does not. This was Christopher Wren, who built a wonderful nest, usually known as St. Paul's Cathedral. Well as I was saying, the nest of Regulus cristatus is in its way equally marvellous. Not so lasting, it is true, as that of jR. christopheros, but the...