i87 



In a few days I noticed that the Nonpareils quite 

 neglected the seed and dried yolk of egg to feed 

 exclusively on the cocoons of the ants, and that they 

 seemed improved both in manner and colour by the 

 change. This was very encouraging, and I began to 

 build castles in the air, and cotmt my chickens before 

 they were hatched. 



The cock Bunting commenced to chase his mate 

 rather more than seemed to be agreeable to her at 

 times, for she used to retaliate and peck him savagely, 

 which is their rough and ready way of conducting 

 their courtship, and I naturally looked forward to a 

 nest at no distant date, and supplied them with a nest- 

 basket and a variety of material that I thought they 

 might pick something from that would suit them, but, 

 apparently they were not in a hurry, and during a 

 period of several weeks no progress was made towards 

 serious nidification. 



We are told that hope deferred niaketh the heart 

 sick, and I began to get tired of my Nonpareils, their 

 boisterous love-making, and their pretence at nest- 

 building, and, as the season for my annual holiday 

 had arrived, I made them over to a friend with whom 

 they did not do any better, and I cannot now remember 

 their subsequent history, except that the cock proved 

 himself to be a very tyrant in the large general 

 aviary in which he and his mate had been placed, and 

 that he grew to be the most brilliantly coloured 

 example of his species that my friend had ever seen. 



