FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



CHAPTER I. 



NEW-WORLD STARLINGS 



These birds are a link between the Ploceine Weavers 

 and the Old-World or typical Starlings. Professor 

 Ridgway, however, does not agree with this view of 

 their affinities, but observes : " The absence of obvious 

 rictal bristles is the only external character that I am 

 able to discover which" will serve to distinguish the 

 Icteridre, as a group, from the Fringillidce." As usual, 

 he makes a great point of the possession of only nine- 

 obvious primaries, though I would venture to say that 

 if all the primary-coverts were removed from a series of 

 F ri iii/ill idn . Ploceidce, and Ictcridcv, the tenth primary 

 would be as obvious in one group as another, this little 

 quill being always well marked in /V/.w/- and other 

 genera of the Fringillida, as well as in every Icterid 

 bird which I have examined, though shorter than its 

 coverts. 



Ridgway correctly says (" Birds of North and Middle 

 America," Vol. II.*, p.' 172) : "The Icteridce comprise 

 bird's of most various ha'bits. 'Some are strictly arboreal, 

 and if placed upon the ground are almost incapable of 

 progression ; others are terrestrial (though more or less 

 frequently alighting on trees and sometimes nesting 

 there), and walk upon the ground with the grace and 

 dignity of a Crow or Starling.* Many inhabit reedy 

 marshes, and these usually nest in large colonies. The 

 Oropendolas (genera Ocyalu*, ('ly/iirf<>ru.*, Zan/>ichus, 

 CJ I/HI lui.ifi in, /i.-\ and O.*finn/i.<) and Caciques (genera 

 ('aririi* and' rV/.--.</V U/M.--I also nest in colonies, but in- 

 stead of building an open, cup-shaped nest attached to 

 the upright stems of aquatic plants, attach their long, 

 pensile nests to the extremities of branches of tall forest 

 trees. The 'American Orioles' (genus Jeter UK) also 

 build pensile nests, 'but, usually at least, are not gre- 

 garious. Many species are remarkable either for the 

 fulness and richness or other remarkable character of 

 their notes, some of them being songsters of hish merit, 

 while others utter only the most harsh and discordant 

 sounds. Some genera (Molofhrus, Cnllotlirns, and rv/>.-/ 

 ffl.r) are parasitic, like the Europsan Cuckoo, always 

 laying their eggs in the nests of other birds." He does 

 not mention, at this point, that the Bobolink (which 

 possesses a very Finch-like outline of bill in both sexes) 

 has distinct summer and winter plumages, after the 

 fashion of the Whydahs and Weavers among the Plo- 

 ce!d(T. Some of the glossy Troupials (the American 

 Crackles) nest occasionally, the Chopi usually, in holes, 

 like our European Starling. 



Meadow Starlings and Marsh -Troupials 



(Agelanidce), 



BOBOLINK (Dolichonyx oryzivord). 



The male in breeding plumage is black, the nape 

 sandy-buff, a patch on the .side of the breast, the scapu- 

 lars and rump white, the latter shading into pale ash 

 on the lower mantle and upper tail-coverts ; the outer 

 primaries edged with yellowish-white, the tips of the 

 tail feathers edged 1 with pale brownish -ash. In the 

 winter plumage it is bums h -brown, mottled" and broadly 

 streaked with black, chiefly on the head and mantle ; 

 wing and tail-feathers blackish, with huffish-brown 

 lx>rders, the primaries, however, narrowly edged exter- 



* I have, however, always considered the niggling, uncertain 

 metho-1 of walking adopted by Starlings particularly undignified; 

 they never seem to know where they will place the next step, and 

 are diverted by the veriest triflos. Crows also often indulge ia 

 most undignified and ungainly lateral hops. 



nally with sordid white ; under surface brownish-butt',. 

 with lateral blackish stripes, ; centre of abdomen whiter ; 

 beak and feet fleshy horn-brown ; iris brown. Female 

 very like the male in winter plumage, but smaller ; 

 yellowish-brown, with blackish markings above ; yel- 

 lowish-buff, with blackish streaks on the flanks below; 

 her bill is weaker, more truly conical (less swollen at the 

 sides) when viewed from above, and of a reddish-brown 

 colour. Hab.. North and Central America and the 

 West Indies, extending southwards as far as the Argen- 

 tine Republic, whence I imported a male example in 

 July, 1893. 



'ihis bird, in its change of plumage, vaguely resembles 

 the Fire Weavers of Africa, but is larger and altogether 

 feebler in colouring. 



When it first arrives in North America in the spring 

 it wanders about in small flocks, apparently consisting 

 of males only, the females probably being concealed in 

 the herbage. Even when paired these birds appear to 

 be gregarious, many pairs building in the same meadow. 

 The nest is built on the ground, generally concealed by 

 grass and wild flowers in meadow-land ; it is strongly 

 formed of flexible bents, is shallow, and contains from 

 five to six dull whitish eggs, marked with reddish-brown 

 and lavender spots and blotches. 



Ridgway says that the song of the Bobolink is " ex- 

 quisitely musical," and Mrs. Olive Thome Miller 

 observes : " Everybody has tried his hand at characteris- 

 ing this bird's incomparable song, but no one has fully 

 expressed it, for words are not capable of it." I am 

 fain to 'believe that these excellent observers were con- 

 vinced of the truth of what they wrote, and yet it is 

 hardly conceivable that the same bird should sing de- 

 liciously when at liberty and execrably in captivity ; it 

 is not so with our British birds. 



One of the most popular favourites in North America, 

 the Bobolink yet has little to recommend it as a cage- 

 bird, being neither gorgeous in plumage nor remarkable 

 in captivity for its vocal acquirements; the boasted 

 beauty of its song is, I believe, based upon the patriotic 

 fancv'of those who love it indeed, it belongs 1 to a group 

 of birds barely equal, as singers, to our English Starling. 



My bird always sang as follows: '' T(><>iic/-t<><>ii<j i<x>k 

 tfi-iHik'' and then went off into a rattling gabble of the 

 most excruciating stopper-screwing, uttered (as Audubon 

 rightly states) " with a volubility that even borders 

 upon the .burlesque and the ludicrous." 



The Bobolink, when freshly imported, is not happy in 

 a cage, and is rather nervous, though less so than most 

 of the Meadow Starlings in an aviary ; it naturally 

 feeds on seeds of weeds and insects; in captivity, 

 canary, millet, paddy rice or oats and insects keep it 

 in health. My bird 'unfortunately died from inflamma- 

 tion of the lungs during its change to summer plumage 

 in March. 1894. 



RED-BREASTKD MARSH-BIRD (Lelstes superr.illirrix). 



In its summer plumage it is glossy black, with pale 1 

 brown eyebrow stripe extending back to the nape ; the.- 

 bend of the wing and body below, from th chin to th 

 middle, crimson ; the beak black ; the feet horn-brown ; 

 the iris' brown. In the winter the feathers of the upper- 

 parts are mostly bordered with golden brown, but the 

 outer wing-coverts and flank-feathers with ash ; all the 

 feathers of the underparts are .broadly fringed with ash 

 and the beak becomes paler; it thus becomes a little' 

 more like the female, which is pale brown above, varied 

 with black below, with the breast stained with red, the 

 flanks and posterior half of abdomen streaked with 

 black ; the tail ashy-brown, barred with black ; bill 

 brown, and more slender than in the male, if viewed in 

 profile. Hab., Brazil, Bolivia, and the Argentine 



