I had been on the look out for one of these birds for a long 

 time, having heard what delightful pets the)' made ; this I found 

 to be quite true, for I have never seen birds so tame within a few 

 days of being caught. Still more anxious was I to obtain one 

 when I saw a pair in one of the public parks in Port Elizabeth, 

 Cape Colony ; they were in perfect condition and their yellow 

 breasts of a particularly deep and rich colour. This pair, I have 

 always thought, must have escaped from captivity as I never met 

 this species again in the Port Elizabeth district. I never suc- 

 ceeded in getting quite the condition and "finish" on my bird 

 that I should have liked, but I had a pair of Gouldians at this 

 time which moulted out with such a perfect "bloom" on them 

 that they quite put into the shade the very best appearance that 

 my Bunting could ever produce. 



One day I had the opportunity of buying a pair, but I was 

 so pressed for room at the time that I only bought the cock bird, 

 and I have regretted ever since that I did not find room some- 

 where for the hen as well. This bird was very tame and confiding 

 from the first, although it had only been caught a couple of days, 

 and it was not long before he would take insects from my fingers 

 without any signs of nervousness or fear. 



His likes and dislikes in the matter of food were very 

 varied. I always fed him on plain canary seed with a little white 

 millet and as many live insects as I had time to catch. On this 

 treatment he was always in perfect health until the middle of last 

 summer, by which time he had been some three months in this 

 country. At that time I gave him mixed seed (as ordinarily sold 

 in packets) instead of plain canary and shortly after he " went 

 wrong" altogether, in fact I quite thought I should lose him. I 

 at once put him on to plain canary seed, and in about a week he 

 was quite himself again. Whether it was the mixed seed that 

 upset him, or some insect that did not agree with him, I cannot 

 say, but I took no more risks and fed him on plain canary seed 

 which has kept him in perfect health ever since. 



Green food he did not seem to care for : the only sorts that 

 I have seen him eat being seeding grass and chickweed, and he 

 would never eat much even of these. In the way of fruit, ripe 

 plums and grapes I think were about the only ones he would 



