A pair of goldfinches who had had the misfortune to be captured with their nest and six young ones, were placed in a double cage, with a pair of canaries, which had a brood of little ones also; there being a partition of wire netting between the cages.

At first the goldfinches seemed careless about their young ones. The father canary, attracted by the cries of the baby goldfinches, forced himself through a flaw in the wire, and began to feed them. This it did regularly, until the goldfinches undertook the work themselves, and rendered the kindness of the canary no longer necessary.