152 Birds I Have Kept. 



There are one or two points in the foregoing extract that 

 require a little explanation : in the first place, the Java Sparrow, 

 Loxia orycivora (Linnceus), der Reisvogel (Russ) and le Padda 

 (Buffon), is not a native of the Cape of Good Hope, nor is 

 it indigenous in China, although largely bred there: its nat- 

 ural habitat is Java, Borneo, Sumatra, and the Islands of the 

 Indian Ocean, and the price has declined from that mentioned 

 by Bechstein, to some three, four, or even less, shillings a pair. 



The Java Sparrow is about the size of an English Bull- 

 finch, but as it is a much more closely feathered bird, it 

 appears smaller. The beak is large and thick, and of a 

 reddish rose colour; the head and throat are black, and the 

 cheeks white; the tail and flight feathers of the wings are 

 black, but all the rest of the upper part of the body is a 

 delicate slate grey; the breast and belly have a purplish tinge, 

 and the under tail-coverts are white. ''The whole plumage," 

 says Buffon, speaking of the Java Sparrow, ''is so well ar- 

 ranged that no one feather passes another, and they all appear 

 downy, or rather covered with that kind of bloom which you 

 see on ripe plums." 



The female is exactly like her mate, which can only be 

 distinguished from her by his somewhat more bounceable 

 manner; for it is a mistake to suppose, as Bechstein seems to 

 have done, that the hen Java Sparrow "is irregularly spotted 

 with dark brown on the cheeks and lower part of the belly." 



Captive Java Sparrows breed freely enough, whether in 

 cage or aviary, if supplied with nesting material, hay, grass, 

 feathers, etc., and suitable nesting places, such as cocoa-nut 

 husks, small boxes, Hartz-cages, and such like; though I have 

 not myself succeeded in obtaining young ones from them, but 

 that may be because I have taken no pains with them, but 

 left them very much to themselves, and even then I think 

 they would have bred successfully if they had not been dis- 

 turbed by mice. 



The white variety, which is a Japanese creation, is said, 



