[p 9]
Some birds past their prime, o’er whose heads it was fated,
Should pass many St. Valentines—yet be unmated,
Sat by, and remark’d that the prudent and sage
Were quite overlook’d in this frivolous age,
When Birds, scarce pen-feathered, were brought to a rout,
Forward Chits! from the egg-shell but newly come out:
In their youthful days, they ne’er witness’d such frisking,
And how wrong! in the Greenfinch to flirt with the [Siskin].
So thought Lady Mackaw, and her Friend Cockatoo,
And the Raven foretold that no good could ensue!