76 A Californian Aviary ami its Iniiiatcs. 



Varied Buntings : I found two males amoni;- a lot of 

 Nonpareils that had just come into a dealer's, but have never 

 been able to procure a hen. When first turned into the aviary 

 these birds fought with one another like two little g'ame cocks 

 but soon settled down, and are now quite well disposel. They 

 are beautiful birds, their purplish plumai^e becoming' iridescent 

 in the sun. 



BiCHENo's P'iNCiiES, Diamond Sparrows, and (iouldians 

 all reared young successfully last Fall, as did Shaft-tail and 

 Masked Finches. All are nice lively birds in an aviary with the 

 exception of the Gouldians, who, I think, have only their bright 

 colours to recommend them. To my mind a Zebra Finch is a 

 much better aviary bird. 



Red-sidep Tits : These lairds are called Japanese 

 Tumblers by the dealers, and are very active and interesting in 

 an aviary. I have seen one of them split the stone of a cherry, 

 hammering' it with its bill. Mine never tried to make a nest, 

 but no other bird in the place could go into a nest-box without 

 one or other of the tits immediately going' to investigate. They 

 were inveterate egg stealers, if they did nothing worse, and in 

 spite of their entertaining ways I determined to get rid of them. 



Red-eared Bulbuls : These built a nest and reared two 

 lots of young last summer, but all the young died just after 

 leaving the nest, for what reason I could never discover, for the 

 weather was warm, and the old birds were plentifully supplied 

 with Hve insects. 



PiN-TAiLED Whydah : Tliis was the disturbing element 

 of the whole collection; not that he ever hurt a bird himself, 

 but as long as he was in colour he kept the small birds in the 

 aviary in a constant state of panic, diving among them simply 

 for the pleasure of frightening them, as far as I could jtulge. 

 All his spare time was spent in this occupation, and c\entually 1 

 had to get rid of him. 



Black Siskins : These were brought by a friend from 

 Peru, and were the first T had ever seen. They are uniform 

 black in colour with canary yellow primaries. The underside 

 of the wings is of the same shade of yellow, so that either in 



