164 Birds I Have Kejpt. 



my little Finches indoors, and, the weather being mild, placed 

 them in a garden aviary already tenanted by a pair of Cocka- 

 teels, and a pair of Grey Cardinals; with the latter of whom 

 they at once engaged in deadly combat: so fierce was the 

 encounter, that I thought I should have had to interfere and 

 separate the belligerents, but after a few minutes the Cardinals 

 were defeated and beat a hasty retreat: the Weavers content 

 with the victory, let their enemies alone, and the four after- 

 wards got on very comfortably together, an armed truce having, 

 apparently, been agreed to between them. With the quiet, 

 easy-going Cockateels, my Orioles, as I continued to call them, 

 never interfered in the least. 



I soon found that my new acquisitions were extremely fond 

 of insects, but they eat all manner of seeds, and seemed strong 

 and healthy. 



After they had been in my possession for some weeks, I 

 imagined, when I saw the male flying about with pieces of 

 fibre in his beak, that I might shortly expect a young brood : 

 but no such good fortune was in store for me, the fellow was 

 only intending to build a toy-nest, which he did after this 

 manner: taking a long stalk of grass in his beak, he threw 

 it over one of the perches in the aviary, and fastened the 

 two ends together, by twisting them round and round each 

 other, then twining other stalks of grass round the foundation 

 he had thus made for himself, he soon framed a wonderfully 

 constructed nest, the size of a cocoa-nut husk, which presented 

 a very curious appearance from the fact of the clever architect 

 having left about an inch of each grass stem sticking out, so 

 that the general effect reminded the spectator of a porcupine, 

 or rather of a hedgehog rolled up. One of these nests I 

 exhibited along with the birds at one of the Crystal Palace 

 Bird Shows, when they were seen and admired by some amateur, 

 who carried them off after payment of the price I had placed 

 upon them, and which I thought would have been prohibitive. 

 The female never made the least attempt to build, though tiie 



