Ornithological and Other Oddities 



robin's churlishness of disposition, but is ready to 

 be hail-fellow-well-met with his own species or 

 any other. This any one may easily observe who 

 cares to go to the comparatively small expense 

 of buying one of these birds, which are now more 

 frequently imported than any other " soft-billed " 

 species, being often obtainable for less shillings 

 than they formerly cost pounds. Placed in an 

 aviary with other birds, the Pekin robin will take 

 an interest in everybody and hurt nobody, will 

 tickle the head of any bird willing to permit the 

 kindly attention, and devour sop, seed, fruit, or 

 insects with a catholicity of taste which does 

 much to explain his abundance and wide range 

 in the wild state. Insects, of course, stand first 

 in his bill of fare, and he is very quick and 

 adroit in securing them, using his foot, as tits 

 do, to help in securing a prize too big to be 

 successfully broken up by the bill alone. It is 

 a curious fact that this simple trick seems never 

 to be learnt by some birds ; none of the thrushes 

 or starlings know it, while tits and babblers 

 have it at their toes' ends, so to speak. The 

 liothrix is not a free breeder in captivity, al- 

 though so easily tamed ; but the species has, 

 nevertheless, been bred on several occasions. 

 In a wild state it is a shy, skulking bird, much 

 like our hedge-sparrow in general habits, and I 



have seldom heard from the male in his native 



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