2 1 o Bird-keep ing. 



of the Bengalies, a brown and white bird, made friends 

 with a widowed Parson Finch, and both roosted to- 

 gether in one of these baskets. Dr. Russ succeeded 

 in rearing several of these birds in small cages : their 

 common origin was proved by the appearance of birds 

 of all the different colours in one nest, and one pair of 

 white Bengalies had a nestling only differing from the 

 Bronze Manikin ancestor in its white throat. All these 

 little birds belong tofatAmadina family, which, with the 

 Estreldce, are classed by the German naturalists under 

 the general name of Pracht Finken, " Bright or beau- 

 tiful-plumaged Finches." They are chiefly distinguished 

 from the Finches proper by their habit of constantly 

 caressing and pluming each other. The pairs show 

 their affection thus, but never by feeding each other 

 from the crop, as these do. They all accompany their 

 song by dancing up and down on the perch, and the 

 little Estreldce generally sing and dance with a feather 

 or a blade of grass in their beaks. They all build 

 domed nests, and all have white unspotted eggs ; and 

 the cock is generally the chief architect, and sits on the 

 eggs with the hen. Neither do the pairs separate after 

 the breeding season, as is the case with most of the 

 Finches. 



The Cambasso appears to be a connecting-link be- 

 tween these Pracht Finken and the Whydah Birds, 

 his only distinction being that he has not the long tail 

 which adorns these birds during the breeding season, 



