50



On the Hooded Siskin.



The mother is a Wild Canary. And so the curtain drops

on Act ii., with much debate between the scenes, as to what

Act iii. will divulge.


Between the 2nd and 3rd Acts, a day elapses (as they write

on the play bills).


It was on the following day, as I was driving down one of

the principal streets of Santa Cruz, that I caught a passing

glimpse of a brilliant little bird in a cage which was hanging

outside a bootmaker’s shop : and I knew that Act iii. had begun.

Just a flash of flame colour, or that of a good orange nasturtium.

“ Stop,” I shouted, “ Stop.” “ El pajaro.” “ The bird ” : it was

the first Spanish word I had studiously committed to memory.


It was rather a case of “ spit it out,” for the * j ’ in Spanish

sounds somewhat like the ‘ ch ’ of a Scottish ‘ loch.’ “ Que

pajaro es este ? ” I stuttered, wildly turning over the pages of a

conversation book. “Cardenal,” was the reply.


Enter the hero ! amidst loud applause.


The owner was an ancient person, as ancient as the bird;

for all that, I tried to purchase the latter, but met with a quite

definite refusal; not departing however before I had discovered

that this was actually the species that is mated with the Canaiy,

producing the ‘ Mista Canaria.’


I at once commissioned the Manager of the hotel where I

was staying to try to procure me one, and some two or three

weeks afterwards the brilliant little bird, whose portrait I have

tried to paint, appeared at Giiimar, a small town on the S.E. of

Ter.eriffe, where I was staying. The same day of his arrival he

sang gaily, and has done so ever since up to the moment of

writing this in September.


O11 studying him at closer and more intimate quarters, I

came to the conclusion he must be certainly allied closely either

to a Siskin or a Goldfinch. His movements and song resemble

both, and his general characteristics. A most charming gay

little bird, about the same size as his portrait, if not exaetty the

same. These ‘ Cardenals,’ as the people of Teneriffe call them,



