Author: Yang Weimin

When I was young, I kept birds for a while.

My way of raising birds is a little different. I prefer stockings to cages. The cage door is always open to let the birds in and out freely.

When raising the first flower magpie, there was no cage. Ren Fei during the day, and live by yourself at night. That's a lovely and poor elf. More than half a century later, it is still flying in the space of my memory.

That day, my second brother picked up a chicken from a big tree. The four brothers are very excited. Decided to feed it. I found a shoe box and poked some holes in it. I found another piece of old cotton wool to spread on it, and then gently put the chicken in.

It's time to feed it, but I don't know what bird it is or what it likes to eat. At that time, I thought all birds loved bugs. There is a kind of seed bug commonly known as "eating goods" on the street tree, so I went to catch some. This insect has a soft bag made of branches, leaves and silk. Cut open the soft capsule and wriggle a dark brown fat bug. We imitate the sound of big birds feeding chickens and send fat bugs to chickens' mouths. But the chicken didn't eat anything. Helpless, we had to break the chicken's mouth and plug the worm in. The chicken didn't spit it out, but craned its neck and swallowed it. As soon as there is a play, we will plug in the second and third parts ... in this way, after feeding for a day or two, the chicks will open their mouths and flap their wings to swallow the insects. The same is true for feeding water. First, you should put it in your mouth with an eye drop bottle. After a few times, it will swallow. The initial feeding and water feeding went smoothly.

When a young bird is hungry, it will open its mouth and shake its wings to beg, and it is also a secret service, almost once an hour. It grows very fast. Before long, brown and white feathers grew all over the body. A week later, it grew tail feathers. Brown body feathers also gradually turn black. I can see it is a magpie.

The little guy is no longer satisfied with staying in the shoebox. He often jumps out of the shoe box and jumps around the room, shooting a bubble of white shit from time to time, making the whole room shiny. Let's get a mop and clean it. In about two weeks, it will fly very low in the room. This is a bad thing. Bird droppings are everywhere on tables, chairs and beds. Pull it in an empty and hard place, and we can clean it with a mop. But pull it in dark and soft places, especially on sheets and quilts. We can't clean it. I have to ask my mother for help. The frequency of asking for help is too high, which annoys my mother. Ordered us to throw away the bird; Or put it on the backyard balcony to feed.

At that time my family lived in the yard of a stone warehouse. Our room is in the main wing on the second floor. A few steps, connected to an outdoor balcony in the backyard. I can't bear to throw it, but I have to move to the balcony and tie it up. I found a thread for knitting soles. One end is tied to the foot of the little magpie. The other end is tied to the stone fence on the balcony.

That little guy is dishonest. I have to fly from time to time until the rope straightens and falls by myself. So many times, the rope was worn out that we didn't notice it at that time. Finally, it broke the rope when it flew upward, and it flew to the roof of a neighbor's tile house with half of the rope. No matter how we say hello, we always jump and fly away from the roof of the tile. Finally disappeared into our sight. ...

We went back to our room regretfully and complained to each other. Unexpectedly, an hour later, suddenly came the cry of a little magpie begging. We can't believe our ears. Rushing to the balcony, I saw that it was really a little magpie flying back, standing on the stone fence of the balcony, begging for food from us. We quickly fed it and held on to half a rope for fear that it would fly away again.

My second brother used to raise pigeons. Have some experience in raising birds. He said that birds can recognize their nests, so there is no need to tie them up, just let them go. So the balcony is clean, so there is no need to clean it. Hearing what he said was reasonable, he boldly let go. The little magpie jumped a few times and Zhang Chifei went out again.

This time I flew farther and flew to the roof across the street. We waited in fear and trembling. I kept shouting to feed, but I never saw the little magpie. As a result, several brothers complained to the second brother in unison. The second brother insisted that if he was hungry, he would fly back to beg for food. We will wait in doubt.

Sure enough, a small black spot swept towards us in the distance. The second brother is sharp-eyed and cheers. The little magpie is back! Looking intently, it was it. After a while, it stood on the stone fence on the balcony and chattered to us for food. After feeding, it flew away again. After several visits, we made sure that it had recognized its nest and found a pattern that it basically begged for food every hour or so. After so many months, its feathers exude a blue-green metallic luster. The tail is also a bundle long, just like a big magpie.

After the "feeding pass" and "recognizing the nest pass", I thought that raising magpies was smooth sailing from now on. Who knows, I immediately encountered a more insurmountable "magpie pattern pass". After the season, the "food" on the street trees disappeared. The magpie pattern suddenly broke. This kind of magpie has been artificially fed since childhood and has no foraging ability in nature. If we don't feed it, we will eventually starve to death, which is unknown. But I'm sure I'll never recognize this nest flying away again.

What should we do?

We tried to feed it with rice. But it obviously doesn't like it. Finally, I stuffed some into it, and it immediately left you a balcony full of white rice. Eat a little and fly away. But I just flew away and flew back right away. Standing on the balcony railing, screaming at you desperately.

We want to replace bugs with meat. Chop the braised pork into minced meat, mix it with rice, knead it into a meat rice ball and feed it. It obviously loves it too much. New magpie food has been discovered. But the source of meat has become a big problem. At that time, braised pork was definitely a "luxury" and could not be eaten every day. For ordinary families, it is good to eat once every ten days and a half months. At that time, my family's situation was slightly better than that of ordinary people. Parents believe that boys need to eat more meat to grow strong, so they must have meat and vegetables every day. Moreover, my dad is a first-class driver, and his monthly salary plus fuel-saving award exceeds 100 yuan, and the economy can still support him. Moreover, he is a suburban driver and knows the heads and salespersons of several suburban butcher shops. I can buy some cheap things like pig's head and tail. So the probability of eating meat is higher than that of ordinary people. But you can't eat casually. There is a limit. For every bowl of rice, dad will personally put a piece of meat in your bowl. In order to feed the magpies, the four of us became monks collectively. Secretly store the meat and hold it in your hand. After dinner, give it to me, the monk in charge, chop it into minced meat and feed it to the magpie with bibimbap. The problem of magpie food has finally been solved temporarily.

But this is not a long-term policy. I couldn't resist the temptation of meat, and my three younger brothers went secular one after another, leaving me a vegetarian. The minced meat in the meatballs is less than three quarters. The taste is naturally greatly reduced. Magpies are throwing rice again. While feeding, I advise you, magpie, how can you have a lot of meat to eat every day? People are like this, you are a magpie. Eat, eat, make do with it. But the magpie didn't listen to the advice, and still threw out the rice grains and pecked at the minced meat to eat. If I don't have enough to eat, I will talk to you endlessly, as if I were protesting. ...

what can I do? An unexpected discovery solved this problem once and for all, and the cost required was still very small.

On the day when the meat was out of stock, my mother often filled it with inferior meat. At that time, chickens, ducks, fish and meat were all rich meat. Snails, yellow clams and clams are all inferior meat. That day, Huang Xian was fried at home. It suddenly occurred to me why not feed the magpie with yellow clam meat? Who knows, it is very popular. It flapped its wings gently and devoured it. Eat till the garden rolls hard, and then fly away like a crooked magpie.

I'm surprised. The magpie pattern is expected to be completely solved. Huang Xian, there are many things in Qiantang River, and many of them have been touched. There are also some in the vegetable market, a few cents a big pot. Feeding is also simple. Usually raised with a basin of clear water. When feeding, poke and twist the back of the clam with a rose knife, and the clam will be broken. clam shell digs it out to feed. Probably mussels are easy to digest, or magpies are greedy for seafood, and the frequency of begging has accelerated. It would have taken more than an hour to ask for food. In another 40 or 50 minutes, you will be begging for food. In this way, someone has to guard it specially, and you can't even go out to play. The third brother naturally refused to take this chore. I am thousands of miles away, but I am just right. At that time, the suspension of classes caused a revolution, and no one would have thought that after ten years of suspension, they always thought that they would return to normal immediately. The college entrance examination is just around the corner, so I dare not neglect my homework. So, I review at home every day. With the popular name now, it is otaku.

It comes begging every forty or fifty minutes, which is exactly the time for a class. Just like hiring a bell ringer. It is chirping for food, and I think it's time for the bell to ring. It ate and flew away. I'm going to start the next class. Feeding magpies has become an interesting activity between classes, which nourishes the brain and relaxes the eyes. There is another great advantage of feeding magpies with clam meat. I can feel at ease and return to the secular world. In order to feed magpies, I don't know the taste of meat in March.

Of course, conflicts often occur between people and magpies. Sometimes, I am solving a difficult problem, and I can't find a solution at the moment. At this time, it came to beg. Chatting and screaming, the more chirping, the more fierce. I naturally ignored it. I didn't want it to be convenient for high-altitude reconnaissance. I know I'm in the house. It flew straight into the room and stopped in the corner of my desk, its tail twittering at me. If I ignore it again, it will fly to your shoulder and whisper in your ear. I have to stop solving the problem and feed it ...

The walking series started and my classmates invited me to Yan 'an. Before leaving, he repeatedly urged the three brothers to feed the magpies on time. Who knows that more than three months after I came back, the magpie disappeared. After my repeated questioning, my second brother told the truth and was taken away.

The flying magpie was picked up? It's incredible. I didn't know until I asked. After I left, the three brothers failed to feed the magpies on time, and they were too hungry to find food, so they stopped flying home. Hunger began to steal, and it began to steal outside. Flying over the alley of a nearby stone warehouse, I saw someone washing meat and cutting fish, so I flew down and stopped on the roof to chirp. At first, people didn't care, believing that magpies could report good news and were unprepared. But once people leave, it swoops down from the roof like an arrow, picks up fish and meat and flies to the roof, where you can stomp and scold, but it eats with relish on the roof. Soon, it became the public enemy of Chiang Kai-shek in our region. It is parked on the roof of a stone warehouse. It's like seeing a Japanese enter the village, and fishy meat like fish will be cleaned up soon.

In fact, if it is only such a petty theft, it will not cause great public anger. People who robbed fish and meat scolded them, but most of them laughed and scolded them, and even privately thought it was quite interesting. Several people who were particularly concerned complained to my mother, and my mother smiled and apologized, but she didn't accumulate too many people's grievances.

But it immediately got into trouble. After people clean up the fishy meat such as fish, it is difficult to succeed in committing crimes and begin to develop into burglary. One day, a newly married couple's window was open. It saw food piled on the table and flew into the house. After eating, I took a big shit on the bride's quilt. This is a terrible disaster. The bride's family dragged my mother to the neighborhood Committee for evaluation. Hearing this situation, the director of the neighborhood Committee found it difficult to mediate. But she is an old director with decades of experience in civil mediation. I saw her arch with her fist. Congratulations. This is a good thing. Cover this quilt and sleep, so that your bride can have a big fat son. The bride's face is full of shame, and the bride's family is also very happy. I'll lend you a good word, a good word. This matter has passed the risk. The director of the neighborhood Committee repeatedly told my mother to take care of magpies, and there must be no similar incidents. My mother obeyed Nuo Nuo.

After coming back, my mother took over the task of feeding magpies. First, she threw some fish and meat on the roof of the kitchen. Feed slowly, cut the yellow clam and feed it to the magpie. This magpie has milk and is its mother. Whoever feeds it will kiss it. It was a few days before I dared to stop on my mother's arm and beg for food. My mother grabbed it, cut off its flight feathers with scissors, and cursed at the same time, letting you go out and make trouble. Cut it off and throw it on the kitchen roof. ...

From then on, magpies can't fly any more, so they can only peck at the broken meat, rotten fish and webbed bodies that my mother threw on the kitchen roof. But mother's housework is numerous and complicated, and feeding magpies can't be finished on time, and magpies are getting thinner and thinner. Finally, on a stormy day, I fell off the roof of the kitchen and couldn't fly anymore. I jumped out of the backyard door ...

My mother said that she saw the magpie being picked up by a middle-aged man. She thought the magpie was really tired and was picked up, so she didn't chase it out and get it back.

I listened, silently, thinking, this is the reincarnation of magpie's fate. It fell from the tree at that time. My second brother picked it up, and I kept it carefully. Now it fell off the kitchen roof and was picked up. Will that person raise it, erect its flight feathers and soar in the blue sky?

I prayed silently in my heart.