The work of Dr. BECHSTEIN upon CAGE BIRDS has been so highly esteemed on the Continent that it has passed through several editions, both in the original and in translations. Besides rendering as faithfully as care could effect, the interesting details of the author, numerous notes have been added, as well as several species introduced, which have recently been kept with success in this country by the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Herbert, Mr. Sweet, Mr. Blyth, and others. The mode of management also peculiar to these, and so different in some points from that recommended by Dr. Bechstein, has been given in detail. It is to be hoped that this translation may have similar success, and produce similar effects in increasing the taste for Natural History, which the original has had on the Continent. It is proper to add, that the drawings of cages, which illustrate this edition, were selected by permission of Mr. Cato, Holborn Bridge, from the numerous elegant specimens which his stock contains. LONDON, _November 1837_. [Illustration] NATURAL HISTORY OF CAGE BIRDS. INTRODUCTION. By cage birds, I mean those kept by amateurs, for amusement, in their apartments, generally selected for sweetness of song or beauty of plumage; but the naturalist has other reasons for surrounding himself with these pleasing creatures: they enliven him, and he delights in studying their habits and characters. To attain these objects it is necessary, in the first place, to be able to distinguish readily between the males and females, since the former are generally superior in their powers of song, and therefore preferable. I have, for this reason, made a point, in the following sketch of the history of house birds, of showing the colours and other marks which characterise the two sexes; and, as all birds cannot be tamed, whilst many others offer no inducement to make the attempt, it follows that those about to be spoken of must necessarily be but a small proportion of all the known species of birds. SONGS OF TAME BIRDS. What is most prized and admired in house birds is undoubtedly their song. This may be natural or artificial, the former being as varied as the species of the birds, for I know of no two indigenous species quite similar in their song; I ought, perhaps, to except the three species of shrike I have given, which, from their surprising memory, can imitate the songs of other birds so as to be mistaken for them: but a naturalist would soon perceive a slight mixture of the song natural to the imitator, and thus easily distinguish between the shrike that copied, and the titlark or red-breast copied from[1]. It is so much the more important to be well versed in the different birds' songs, as to this knowledge alone we are indebted for several curious observations on these pretty creatures.