II 



are reminiscences I must speak personally — with one 

 exception, I found them nothing of the sort. True 

 they did occasionally snap at other birds, but not 

 sufficiently often to cause me to brand the entire 

 family as being bad tempered, for other species get 

 irritable at times and behave in a manner worthy — or 

 should I say unworthy ? — of the character of Weavers 

 themselves. And they did not worry and harass other 

 birds. Neither did they break the legs of their com- 

 panions, nor brain them, nor disembowel them, nor 

 hang, draw, and quarter them. It is strange I know — 

 from a popular standpoint — but it is nevertheless a 

 fact. Why they did not I cannot say. The only 

 excuse I can offer on their behalf is that they were 

 made wrongly. 



The exception I have referred to did attempt to 

 tyrannise over his companions at first— (I noticed they 

 all had a slight tendency to do the same until they had 

 settled down) — but even he was open to wisdom, 

 though only a Weaver. I did not intend that his bad 

 behaviour should make the other birds miserable, so 

 having caught him, I placed him in a small German 

 travelling cage, and hung it up in a top corner of the 

 general living cage. There he stopped for a week, 

 and it was a very quiet and subdued Crimson-crown 

 which meekly hopped out when the bars were raised 

 at the end of that time. He could not alter his 

 manner altogether though, for after a time, when the 

 seven days had passed into an uneasy remembrance, 

 I caught him at his games again. This time it meant 

 a month in solitary confinement, with all his erstwhile 

 companions hopping around and enjoying themselves, 

 and at times actually perching on his prison ! It was 



