48 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



surface being entirely bronze green; the wing feathers mostly dusky, 

 with green outer webs; the central tail feathers dull green, the 

 remainder dusky with dull green outer borders; the lores greyish; 

 feathers encircling the eye yellowish ; sides of face and ear-coverts with 

 a buff tinge; under surface dull yellow, slightly tinged with brown on 

 the sides and flanks; under wing-coverts greenish grey; flights smoky 

 with greyish inner webs. Length five and three-tenth inches, some- 

 times smaller.* 



Some years ago I turned a pair of this species into one of my 

 bird-room aviaries, but they showed no disposition to breed : moreover 

 the hen proved to be delicate and only lived for about six months ; this 

 was disappointing, especially as one does not often get a chance of 

 obtaining that sex, even at nearly double the price of a cock-bird. 



Though usually wild when first turned loose in a large aviary, 

 the Nonpareil soon gets to know his keeper and will come to the 

 front when called, to take mealworms or flies from his fingers : in 

 fact, after a time the bird calls to its owner, if he offers to pass the 

 aviary without pausing to give it a tit-bit. 



The song of the Nonpareil is soft, gentle and sweet ; in character 

 it is not unlike that of the Indigo Bunting, but it has none of the 

 shrill notes of that species : in fact it would make a far more amiable 

 and suitable pet for a nervous old lady than a Canary ; and, if it were 

 only generally known that it was a hardier, cheaper, tamer, less noisy, 

 and infinitely more beautiful bird, it is probable that the demand for 

 Nonpareils would rapidly exceed the supply. 



In its native country, Cyanospiza ciris itsually frequents small 

 thickets, where the cock bird sings to his hen from the topmost branch 

 of some shrub or bush, as she sits in her nest in the lower branches 

 of bramble or orange. So steadily does this mother brood over her 

 eggs, that she may even be lifted from them, before she will attempt 

 to escape. The nest is formed of extremely dry grasses, intermixed 

 with rootlets and fine hair, felted together with the silk of , caterpillars. 

 The eggs are pearly white, blotched and dotted with purplish and 

 reddish-brown. 



Mr. G. T. Gaumer, in his notes on birds from Yucatan, speaks of 

 C. ciris as " Common in all open lands and villages, often seen in the 

 principal streets of Merida, but most common on the coast. It lives 

 among the weeds and low bushes, where it finds its food, which consists 

 chiefly of seeds. Rather rare in midsummer." 



* Young cock birds, just commencing to acquire the red colouring on the flanks, have been 

 mistaken for hens in full breeding colour. 



