Effects of Solitude on a Canary.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 163, 31 July 1886, Page 3

Effects of Solitude on a Ca nary.

-I w*a ■> rendered quite boiry by an account •of what) happened to anuiher pet caniv.y -through its being left alone. It be:o»r.iu<i to j •a family of biul-loveie, and -when they v, ere •at home tbe little thing was, tilLeJ to, prii^o-l, and ofien allowed t> fly about the room for an hour or two It h'ippi*r>ed, 'however, that t.ie mother find v}' "■* Iren wore going to the scif-ide, and feaj{n>; . ,ac there mi/ht be a lodging-hou-e cat, tlu-y rhopght they should best "consult Bcb'o ".ifety by leaving him at home. Trie .ser\ a its h< companicd the family, only the master of tne ■houte remaining- behind. He inertly slept under t'te 1001", hij dojc bearing liiui com.pany, and a thoroughly reliable person having been en^a^ed to come in and make "things tidy, aud attend to Bob, the canary . The weather -was warm, the cage fittingly placed, the water wai of this freshest, the seed-box well supplied. Surely Bob lacked nothing, through thin attendant, but ohe was 'mifitaken. The master came in at bedtime and went out early, his week earls being epent at the seaside with hid family, lie thought nothing about poor Bob':; loneliness. The woman in charge would have 'taken him home, but her cat was not uted to birds, uiui could rtach any part of the only window in which a cuge e\iuld be hung, so she durst not place Bob there. With •everything arcund him that it is generally thought a biid could want, the canary hegan to mope and ?oon ceased to sing. When hi-s owneis eamo back they found their pet outwardly the name, healthy looking and in fine feather, but silent. At first they were inclined to suspect that something had happened to Bed, and the piesent bird was only a tub-stitute. But he convinced them to the contrary by little ways of his own, which no new-comer could -have imitated, though in one respset he did not , recover thto effects of that lonely time — Bob ' never sang again.