188 SERINUS CANICOLLIS. 



tlie more open pasture and ploughed land, to feed, with other 

 Finches and Weaver-birds, on small seeds and insects that they 

 find on the ground. The justly admired song of the Cape 

 Canary is prolonged and very sweet, and is compared by Dr. 

 Euss to that of a Lark. Individual birds, however, even in 

 a wild state, differ remarkably in the singing powers, some 

 being far superior to others in the richness and fulness of their 

 notes. The cock of this species has, in confinement, been 

 known to pair with the hen of the Common Cage Canary and 

 Serinus flaviven iris. 



" In Cape Colony the Cape Canary usually breeds in Sep- 

 tember and October, in Upper Natal in October and November. 

 The nest, neatly constructed and cup-shaped, is built in a 

 thick low bush, of dry grass and bents, with sometimes a little 

 moss, lined with hair, feathers, and downy seeds. The eggs, 

 three or four in number, are white, faintly tinted with blue, 

 and streaked and spotted at the obtuse end with purplish 

 brown and reddish brown. They measure 0*75 X 0"55.' 



Messrs. Butler, Feilden and Reid, met with the Cape Canary 

 in winter, frequenting the bush-grown kloofs in the Drakens- 

 berg, near Newcastle, and as the breeding season approached 

 was more often found in the open veldt among weeds and 

 sci'ubby bush, and was breeding in October and November. 

 The nests were chiefly built in the pendant branches of willows 

 overhanging the river. The Messrs. Woodward found them 

 abundant in Zululand, where they remark : " It is well known 

 throughout the country for its sprightly habits and cheerful 

 song." 



In the Lydenburg district of the Transvaal Mr. T. Ayres 

 met with them in small floci<s generally on the more open 

 slopes of the hills. 



The species has been introduced into Reunion and Mauritius, 

 from whence there are specimens in the British Museum, and 



