192 Bird-keeping. 



has a very short monotonous song, accompanied by a 

 comical little dance up and down on the perch. The 

 female is rather more slender in shape, and the head 

 is a trifle smaller, but that is the only distinction 

 between them. 



At the Crystal Palace show in 1868, a pair of Java 

 Sparrows were exhibited by Mr. Hawkins, entirely 

 white, with the black head and throat and rose-coloured 

 beak of the grey Java Sparrow, and with the plumage 

 equally soft and downy, and I was told that they were 

 most beautiful birds. The hen had laid four eggs. 

 They came, I believe, from Japan, and were the first 

 brought to England. Since then many pure white 

 specimens have been exhibited. The Japanese are 

 wonderfully clever in producing strange varieties of 

 animals and plants, and they have large establishments 

 for breeding these birds, a great many of which are 

 now imported into England. It is said the white birds 

 breed more readily in confinement than the common 

 Java S-parrows, but amongst the nestlings there are 

 generally some, which either return wholly to the colour 

 of their progenitors or are partially grey and spotted. 

 The nests of these birds are generally built of grass, 

 and are found in the tops of the arengo palms in Java, 

 or amongst the creeping plants surrounding their 

 stems. In confinement they will build in cigar-boxes, 

 large rush baskets, parrakeets' nest-boxes, etc. They 

 require egg food and ants' eggs during breeding, as 



