70 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



iny short experience of this very handsome little Cardinal, I should 

 judge it to be less delicate than P. cucullata ; it is certainly tamer and 

 more gentle, nor do I think that it would prove very aggressive in an 

 aviary with birds of nearly its own size. 



My bird would frequently fly down from his perch and take 

 a mealworm from niy fingers ; but not when strangers were present : 

 he was very fond of hanging upon the wire front of his cage near 

 the roof, by which means he was able to get a good view of a 

 large flight cage containing five examples of P. cucullata (the 

 Red-crested Cardinal). At times, but especially when the sun was 

 shining, he would sing as he clung to the wire netting : he is decidedly 

 the prettiest of all the Cardinals and ought to be more freely imported ; 

 but his rarity as a cage-bird, even in South America, seems to show 

 that very few specimens are obtained by the native bird-catchers. It 

 is a marvel to me that captains of ships regularly trading between 

 Buenos Ayres and Liverpool, do not make a point of ransacking the 

 market, each time they visit the former town, and picking up the 

 individual examples of this and other rare species, which must, from 

 time to time, be offered for sale. It would require no great strain, 

 even upon a very weak intellect, to remember which the valuable 

 species were, and it would certainly be a very fair investment for a 

 little idle capital. Most sailors are by no means stupid, indeed their 

 very profession requires them to be wide awake and intelligent, and 

 the masters of Merchant-ships are as a class well-educated and shrewd ; 

 to these, it would be easy enough to learn the characteristics of the 

 rarer birds of the Buenos Ayres market, in a few minutes, and the 

 information could readily be obtained from any experienced lover of 

 foreign birds. 



The illustration is taken from a lovely example of the cock, 

 lately living in the author's collection. The bird died on the a6th 

 February, 1894 ; thus the details were completed from the skin. 



