Читать книгу The Natural History of Cage Birds - Bechstein Johann Matthäus - Страница 2

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.