238 



certainly appeared as if they would never get dry 

 again in this world. 



But of course they did. And after fluttering 

 their wings, preening themselves, and flying about for 

 a few moments, the}^ settled down to eating and soon 

 developed into the most uninteresting birds under the 

 sun. 



My next acquisitions were a pair of Bengalese and 

 a Tri - coloured Mannikin. The latter was purcliased 

 within a few days of the Black-headed Mannikins, 

 and consequently before I had discovered what 

 uninteresting birds they really were. As most of our 

 members know, the Tri-coloured differs only from the 

 Black-headed in having the breast and part of the 

 under body pure white in the place of the rich 

 chocolate possessed by the latter bird in the same 

 regions. Their habits are exactly the same in 

 captivity, and represent what I have heard pithily des- 

 cribed as "vegetable existence." Of course everyone 

 has heard of — and possibly some have actually heard — 

 the "song" possessed by the same species. All I 

 could ever catch, and I have fairly good hearing, was a 

 very faint drawn out " whee-e-ee " at tlie finish of the 

 visible performance. The vigour and enthusiasm 

 thrown into their presumed vocal efforts are however 

 worthy of a more adequate result — at least so it 

 appears to an onlooker — though the quiet satisfaction 

 expressed in their manners at the end of the solo as 

 they again comfortably settle themselves on the perch, 

 leads one to believe that they, at any rate, derive con- 

 siderable satisfaction from their antics. 



I sometimes seemed to think that the Bengalese 

 regarded the Mannikins in the light of competitors 

 in a class in which they can probably beat any birds 

 yet created. Whether this was really the case or not, 

 it is nevertheless a fact that whereas the Mannikins 

 would move occasionally and at times become quite 



