We had had one of those summer storms which so injure the beautiful
flowers and the young leaves of the trees. A blackbird's nest with
young ones in it was blown out of the ivy on the wall, and the little
ones with the exception of one, were killed! The poor little bird did
not escape without a wound upon his head, and when he was brought to
me it did not seem very likely that I should ever be able to rear him;
but I could not refuse to take in the little helpless stranger, so I
put him into a covered basket for a while.
I soon found that I had undertaken what was no easy task, for he
required feeding so early in a morning that I was obliged to take him
and his bread crumbs into my bedroom, and jump up to feed him as soon
as he began to chirp, which he did in very good time.
Then in the daytime I did not dare to have him in the sitting-room
with me, because my sleek favorites, the cats, would soon have
devoured him, so I carried him up into an attic, and as he required
feeding very often in the day, you may imagine that I had quite enough
of exercise in running up and down stairs.
But I was not going to neglect the helpless thing after once
undertaking to nurse him, and I had the pleasure of seeing him thrive
well upon his diet of dry-bread crumbs and a little scrap of raw meat
occasionally; this last delicacy, you know, was a sort of imitation of
worms!
Very soon my birdie knew my step, and though he never exactly said so,
I am sure he thought it had "musick in't," for as soon as I touched
the handle of the door he set up a shriek of joy!
The bird that we nurse is the bird that we love, and I soon loved
Dick. And the love was not all on one side, for my bonnie bird would
sit upon my finger uttering complacent little chirps, and when I sang
to him in a low voice he would gently peck my hair.
As he grew on and wanted to use his limbs, I put him into a large
wicker bonnet-basket, having taken out the lining; it made him a large
cheerful airy cage. Of course I had a perch put across it, and he had
plenty of white sand and a pan of water; sometimes I set his bath on
the floor of the room, and he delighted in bathing until he looked
half-drowned; then what shaking of his feathers, what _preening_ and
arranging there was! And how happy and clean and comfortable he looked
when his toilet was completed!
You may be sure that I took him some of the first ripe currants and
strawberries, for blackbirds like fruit, and so do boys! When he was
fledged I let him out in the room, and so he could exercise his wings.
It is a curious fact that if I went up to him with my bonnet on he did
not know me at all, but was in a state of great alarm.
Blackbirds are wild birds, and do not bear being kept in a cage, not
even so well as some other birds do; and as this bird grew up he was
not so tame, and was rather restless. I knew that, though I loved him
so much, I ought not to keep him shut up against his will. He was
carried down into the garden while the raspberries were ripe, and
allowed to fly away; and I have never seen him since. Do you wonder
that my eyes filled with tears when he left?