Birds and All Nature, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 1899: Illustrated by Color PhotographyVarious
History
Birds and All Nature, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 1899: Illustrated by Color Photography
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
In the March number of the _Cosmopolitan_ of 1894, I read a most
interesting article about a tame humming-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 passionately 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 carefully, 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 minute 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 several days, then he would take it out of my fingers. He lived
on bread and milk for two weeks. Now he eats almost everything that I
do. All kinds of vegetables, 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 prefers eating them outside his cage,
and his hemp seed he always brings over and eats on the rug in front of
my bed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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