CANARIES AND SEEDEATERS 145 



It lives principally on weed seeds and insects, thus being 

 useful as well as ornamental and a songster. It builds a 

 neat little cup-shaped nest and lays three or four eggs of a 

 very pale blue, streaked and spotted at the obtuse end with 

 purple and reddish-brown. 



It takes readily to confinement, being hardy and can be 

 bred in captivity ; it is in consequence much sought after 



Fig. 82. — Cape Canary at nest. 



by the schoolboys of the Eastern Districts of the Cape, who 

 made a regular traffic in the catching and selling of Canaries 

 before the Wild Birds' Protection x\ct of 1899 was in 

 operation. [Unfortunately no clause was inserted allowing 

 the collection of birds for scientific purposes.] This Act was 

 largely due to the praiseworthy efforts of the late genial and 

 sporting magistrate of Grahamstown, Mr. Francis Graham. 



The Large Yellow Seedeater (Serinus sulphuratus), the 

 " Geel-seisje " and " Bully " of the Colonial boys, and its 

 smaller congeners, the Kleine Seisjes (S. flaviventris and 

 S. marsJialli) make handsome cage-birds in their greenish- 



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