' 65 



Some 1Remtni6ccnce5 of mv> lEarlv) 3)av6 

 of Jforcigu BirO Ikeeptna- 



By J. A. Swan. 

 {Contiftiied from page 13.) 



It is an extremely natural transition from the 

 Weavers to the Whydahs, and these latter completely 

 charmed me ver}^ early in my avicultural career. 

 Their quiet gentle manner and pretty little dignified 

 appearance seemed to me to give just that touch of 

 refinement necessary to soften the more vigorous be- 

 haviour of the Weavers. I must confess that when I 

 wrote the foregoing I was thinking of the Paradise 

 Whydahs, so perhaps it is necessary to qualify my 

 remarks when mentioning the Pin-tailed species. For 

 of all bad tempered birds, the Pin-tailed when in 

 colour stands first " by a long chalk," as our American 

 cousins have it. At least this was my experience, 

 gained from several specimens at different times. 

 When out of colour, however, their malicious temper 

 departed to a very large extent, though they were 

 never in any sense sociable birds. I often felt tempted 

 to pull out the wonderful tail so as to punish the bird 

 by putting him in "prison" for a week or so, but I 

 doubt very much if it would have had the desired 

 effect. There appeared to me to be a thoroughly 

 scowling, cross-grained look about the Pin-tailed 

 Whydah's face when in breeding plumage, and no- 

 thing short of a moult removed that impression. 



Now the Paradise Whydah is very different and 

 enjoys himself in a quiet orderly fashion. Most of 

 mine used to delight to get to the highest step of a 

 long swinging perch and then make a swoop down- 



