1 90 Bird-keeping. 



colour. When he is moulting, the plumage becomes 

 speckled with brown, and in the spring he can hardly 

 be distinguished from the hen, which is entirely brown, 

 mottled and barred with yellowish-brown. He moults 

 again in the autumn, when he changes his brown dress 

 for blue-black, so that he has a totally different ap- 

 pearance in summer and winter. I suppose the black 

 dress and the constant discoursing of the male, who 

 keeps up a continual chattering, with a few sweet notes 

 drawn out occasionally, has caused the bird-dealers to 

 name these birds familiarly " the little Doctor and his 

 wife." The young cocks have the colour of the hen 

 bird at first, and then become mottled with the glossy 

 blue-black of the adult bird for some time before they 

 acquire the full plumage. They have all an extra- 

 ordinary habit of hovering in the middle of the cage, 

 with their feet drawn up and fluttering their wings, 

 chattering all the time. They are fed on canary-seed 

 and millet. Bechstein says they have an agreeable 

 voice, but I cannot echo his opinion with regard to the 

 two birds I have had. They are very fond of bathing. 

 They do not appear to breed readily in confinement, 

 although they are hardy birds, and will live through 

 the winter in a room without a fire. One which be- 

 longed to a neighbour of mine, escaped from its cage, 

 and lived out of doors one hot summer ; fortunately 

 it was caught, before the winter cold became severe, in 

 the garden of its former home, which it visited in com- 



