66 



wards to the lowest one, where they would land with 

 a click. A spring and a fly upwards took them aloft 

 again and the action took place so quickly after the 

 descent as to appear one effort. They would vary the 

 downward flight sometimes by sweeping in a semi- 

 circle towards an end perch, and I never remember 

 them missing their footing, although the swing was 

 often swaying from side to side at the time. The 

 action was an exceedingly graceful one, and I never 

 tired of watching it. Indeed, on reflection, I cannot 

 recall any bird more graceful in all its ways than the 

 Paradise Whydah. Their bodies are beautifully curved, 

 their long tails droop in a semi-circle, their delicate 

 legs seem to be made of steel springs and they walk 

 in a manner which can only be called dignified. 

 Their bearing indeed always appeared to me to repre- 

 sent the aristocracy of bird life. In a word they are 

 the essence of beauty in birds— all graceful curves. 



Another very charming little bird — really little in 

 comparison to the Whydahs — is the Grey Singing 

 Finch. I quite forget how many I have had at one 

 time and another, but it must have been nearly a 

 dozen. I bought them because I wanted to hear their 

 beautiful singing — hardly inferior, from what one 

 hears, to the Nightingale itself. But never a sound 

 beyond a sweet chirp did I ever hear. And how care- 

 full}'' I tried to get cock birds when purchasing, gazing 

 long and earnestly at the little white patch in the 

 throat and the huffish flank feathers, both of which, by 

 the size in the former and the colour in the latter, are 

 supposed to indicate the males. I also got " experts " 

 to pick them out for me when I found I was unsuccess- 

 ful mvself: but the result was alwavs the same. I 



