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
THE STORY OF LITTLE BILLEE--(_Continued from page 44_).
I have succeeded far beyond my expectations with Taffy and Little
Billee. It hurt me very much to be obliged to punish Taffy when he
would spring at Little Billee, as Taffy and I had been devoted to each
other for two years; still I did not want him to kill my baby bird.
One day Little Billee was sitting on my knee dressing his feathers and
going through all sorts of antics, while Taffy sat a few feet away
gazing at him with longing eyes. I called to my maid to bring Taffy and
hold him on her lap, and then let Little Billee peck and bite his paws,
ears, and nose, and a more astonished cat I never saw. After we let
Taffy go he was found sitting on the cellar stairs in a most dejected
way rubbing his nose with his paw. For several days we did the same
thing until Taffy was afraid at sight of Little Billee. One morning
Taffy came to bed with me, and lay on my arm while Little Billee sat
on my shoulder. Soon Taffy put his chin on my chin, and Little Billee
came and sat close to my cheek. Finally Taffy became so sleepy he
turned over, went fast asleep, and Little Billee hopped down on his
back, and we lay that way for some time. Since then almost every day
Taffy will lie on my lap, and Little Billee will sit on his head, back,
or on my knee and dress his feathers. One day Little Billee had the
impertinence, while I had them both on my lap, to reach out and peck
Taffy in the eye. That was a little more than Taffy could endure, and
he reached out his paw and struck at him. For over a week I could not
get Little Billee to go near him, but now they are very good friends.
Little Billee enjoys going down into the parlors to see visitors, but
he gives them to understand, the first thing, they may look but they
must not touch. He will entertain them by hopping all over me, kissing
me in the mouth and chirping at the top of his voice. When it begins to
get dark Little Billee does not want to be off from me a minute. If I
have him down stairs and put him on the floor he will hop and fly after
me from room to room. The other day I left him in the front parlor on a
plant jar and went into the dining-room and was gone some little time.
When I came back there was no Little Billee to be found. I called him
by name and peeped to him, but I could not get an answer. As I went
upstairs I called, "Where is my Little Billee?" And he said, chirp,
chirp, chirp; and I found him in my room eating his seeds and as happy
as possible.
Since then every day when he gets tired of the parlors he goes
upstairs, for he seems to think my room is his home. One day I watched
him to see how he went. He hopped from step to step. When he reached
the top he flew into my room and lighted on the top of his cage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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