Ornithological and Other Oddities 



nubial fondlings and affectionate reciprocities " 

 that they get fat and lazy and forget to go to 

 nest ; whereas the excitement of driving the 

 neighbours from their front door and continually 

 playing a game of "general post" so enlivens 

 them that they all start rearing offspring in 

 emulation of each other. 



All one has to avoid is odd birds, for an 

 embittered budgerigar which finds itself with no 

 one to love it becomes a source of disastrous 

 discord in the little community. I regret to 

 say that in such a case the hens are the worst ; 

 and even when mated they are sometimes very- 

 spiteful. 



Quotations of budgerigars show them often 

 as low as five-and-sixpence a pair, with a re- 

 duction on taking a quantity, so that the outlay 

 for stock would not be ruinous, though every 

 time of the year is not right for turning them 

 out of doors, so that they would have to be 

 kept in a cage till the spring, if bought in 

 winter. 



The budgerigar, although a " love-bird," is 

 not quite an angel, and, like the hyena, has a 

 nasty trick of biting his enemy's feet in a fight. 

 He can be checkmated, however, by associating 

 him with the Java sparrow, that preternaturally 

 sleek bird whose quakerish plumage of lavender- 

 grey is at once set off and contradicted by a 



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