Daily Kennebec journal., 1881-11-26
Gales aao Sketf5fs.
FRITZ.

whose name stands at the head of this ar
ticle, he was rather . melancholy object
to behold. Not more than month or six
weeks old. he sat on the finger Of the boy
who had picked him up from the gravel
walk-too young to know fear, and. it
seemed to Us. too young to take food from
ANYTHING but the maternal bill. We
thought he would probably live only a
few hours. But we put him in cage.
and began to feed him with hard-boiled
eggs mixed with cracker from the point
of q steel pen-the nearest in resemblance
to a birds bill Of my possessions. lie
took it very nicely. thrived wonderfully
on it, and from the first. displayed unusual
Intelligence; in the course Of few days
he showed pleasure when ] came IN the
cage, as Young birds do at the approach
of the mother, by fiuttering his very scanty
feathers. At first we were obliged to
cover the lower part Of the cage with
Swiss muslin, as he was so very small
that he could easily get out between the
wires, and as yet could not fly; but he
grew fast, and in the autumn, by the time
we were ready to keep doors and windows
shut, he was allowed the range Of the
whole upper part of the house, in general.
sleeping room. and never voluntarily go
ing down stairs, although he could have
done so at any time.
For the first few months. even when
fully nedged. he appeared only as a rather
common looking. little, greenish-brown
bird, with dark bars on his wings.
searched the ornithologies, in vain, To dis
cover his name and species, and, also,
showed him 10 various persons pretty well
acquainted with the natural history OF the
State, with the same purpose. but without
success-nobody could place" Fritz. and
/ almost made up my mind that he was a
small and rather "A dingv canary, when
about the middle of the winter his plum
age began to change, when he came out
in the brilliant lemon-color and black Of
the American gold-finch.
But no canary that ! ever saw, could
equal Fritz in sprigbtliness, intelligence
and affection TO say that he was tame
would give no idea Of his perfect
friendlincss and familiarity. His cage
he regarded simply as dining and
sleeping room, and seldom went into
it in the daytime, except for the
purpose of eating. At the same time. he
had no objection to it. and could put
him in at any time when it was conven-
lent to do so He lived almost exclusive
ly on hemp-seed. which agreed with him
perfectly: he was, also. extremely fond
OF other small seeds. like plantain, and
particularly of fresh groundsel. When
he saw us come in with Il handful of this,
he would fly across the room to get it.
with cries of Joy. and sitting on our hands
eagerly shell out and eat the little white
seeds. In winter, when such green food
could not be procured. he satisfied him
self with the leaves of the various plants
which he KEEP. in the room, and nearly
ate up two or three small gcraniums.
Although Fritz never went To roost in
his cage. havinga great objection to doing
so. always put him into it for the night
and when morning came he was most
well-behaved, COMFORTING himself more
like human being than n bird. and, in
stead of rousing us with shrill singing at
dawn, never uttering a sound till we rose
when he greeted us ut once with a gay
chirrup. and was ready To come out and
assist at the toilets of my sister and my
sell. During the whole operation of dress
ing he was n constant source OF amuse-
ment, and. may add. considerable him
he sat on the gas fixture close by. chatter
ing. singing. scoldng. and making little
darts at the towel. which he regarded
with peculiar animosity. Toiten had con
siderable difficulty in getting through
with brushing my teeth, owing to the fact
that Fritz preferred that time and the
tumblcr of water for his own morning
bath, and would sit on the edge. making
,I.,1- l., IL,
the water about. and ducking his head in
but never quite vcnturing to plunge in on
account OF the depth. | often tried him
with saucer. but in vain-he never would
take a bath in anything but that glass of
water. He would. however. allow my
sister to dip him into the wash basin. when
the water was quite deep, without show
ing any fear. While we are arranging our
hair. he divided his attentions bctwccn u1'
flying from one toilet-table to the other,
sometimes swinging head downward from
my loose braids OF hair. or fyiny with
rapid scolding and chatteriug at the hair
brush. which he disliked as much as he
did the towel.
During the day he was very busy. every
minute being actively employed in some
thing. When wrote. he sat on the han
die Of the pen, apparently ENJOYING the
motion, now and then running down to
the pen point TO taste the ink. or travelling
across the still undried page. trying to
pick Off the words. to the great detriment
of the letter or article; or. again, at
tempting to drink out of the ink sta nj.
When l was reading. he delighted to sit
on the edge of the book. tugging away
with his small beak at the leaves. tearing
off little bits and throwing them away. It
was really impossible 10 read a book of
any value in the same room with him.
and was often obliged either to shut
him up in the cage. or to lay down my
book and give up to the dear little tor
ment. 1t was useless to drive him away {;
he only scolded. evidently feeling himself
very much aggrieved and intertered with.
and was back again the next minute.
In sewing or knitting he WAS always
greatly interested. Perched close to the
needle, he picked at tie stitches, or ravel-
ed out the warn, at the imminent risk of
having his eyes put out. lie also had
more than one hair breadth escape from
having his legs cut off by the scissors.
He enjoyed sitting on the arm of the sew
ing machine while ii was in motion. aud
probably regarded il as horseback exercise.
e |.