THR NONPAREIL Brxrixr,. 49 



The Nonpareil Bunting has one fault, it is decidedly a combative 

 bird ; if kept with Indigo Buntings, it renders their lives a burden by 

 its frequent attacks ; nor is it always wise in its choice of opponents, 

 for my second cock of this species nearly lost his life by attacking 

 three Saffron Finches, which fell upon and so mauled him, that after 

 a second day of a series of such encounters, I discovered him sitting 

 upon his tail, on the sand ; the feathers all plucked from his neck : the 

 poor fellow felt so bad that he let me pick him up without an effort 

 to escape. 



As the above event occurred in the summer time, I turned my 

 Nonpareil into an outer aviary, open all day to the air ; and, after 

 moping about for nearly a week, he suddenly plucked up his spirits 

 and became as lively as ever ; nevertheless, he did not regain the 

 feathers on his neck until his autumn moult ; but went about, looking 

 like a scarecrow, for several months. 



It is probable that the cause of dispute between my Nonpareil and 

 Saffron Finches was that the former mistook a hen Sycalis for a female 

 of his own species; the size and general coloration would be sufficiently 

 near to deceive a bird, which had not been introduced to a lady of his 

 own set for three or four years. 



The pugnacious disposition of the Nonpareil is taken advantage of 

 by the American bird-catchers, somewhat as that of the Chaffinch is in 

 England ; only, instead of using limed twigs, they set up a stuffed 

 specimen on the platform of a trap-cage. 



Dr. Carl Russ, in his little work entitled Canary Birds : liow to 

 breed for profit or pleasure, in the chapter on mule-breeding, (p. no of 

 the English edition), states that the Nonpareil and the Indigo bird are 

 adapted for this sort of breeding. 



In his Handbuch fiir Vogelliebhaber, he says : " Belonging to the 

 most beautiful of all Finches, one of the commonest in the bird-shop ; 

 imported yearly in many hundreds, they always go off well." 



" If suitably fed and not disturbed, nests regularly, in two to three 

 broods. Nest a shallow cup, formed in a bush or in a little basket, of 

 soft strips of paper, stalks, bast-fibres, and, after that, of moss, cotton- 

 threads, agave-fibres and horse-hair. Laying three to four eggs, bluish- 

 white, sprinkled with brown and violet. Incubation thirteen days. The 

 hen builds and incubates alone. The male feeds both with her and 

 alone, if the hen begins to nest again. Young plumage like that of the 

 hen, only duller grey-green. The male first acquires its full-coloured 

 plumage in the third year, up to that time it is parti-coloured. 



"At breeding-time very excited, they jerk their tails; though at 



F 



