Foreign Cage-Birds at Home 



bojeri), was the commonest bird in Mombasa, 

 though the dull greenish females and young 

 were naturally more numerous than the full- 

 plumaged cocks. This, however, was not then 

 in the trade, and I do not know that it has been 

 imported since, so I merely introduce it here to 

 show how one may miss a good thing. Seeing 

 these beautiful and showy seed-eating birds all 

 about the place, I naturally thought they would 

 be in the possession of many dealers at home, 

 and so I did not trouble to keep any, although a 

 fledgling once actually flew into the bungalow 

 where I was staying. But when I got home I 

 found to my great surprise that not only was the 

 bird, as I implied above, not to be had of the 

 dealers, but was so little known even to pro- 

 fessional scientists, that they had not got the 

 female in the British Museum collection. Moral 

 — don't despise the common birds of a country 

 unless you know all about them. I did not see 

 these weavers feeding on the ground, but often 

 observed them on low vegetation ; their nests 

 were to be seen hung on the fronds of palm-trees 

 even among the native huts, several together, as 

 is the general custom of the weaver group. These 

 nests were rounded in shape, with an entrance 

 hole, but no tubular passage thereto as in some 

 of the nests built by birds of this family. 



The half-collared turtle dove (Turtur semitor- 



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