214 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



them made me half afraid to turn them loose in my bird-room among 

 the wild Mannikins and Astrilds. This author says : " Through being 

 bred by the Japanese in miniature cages, the imported White and Pie- 

 bald Mannikins seem to be almost unable to fly, and consequently they 

 are nearly as helpless in a large aviary as a young bird just leaving 

 the nest. They tumble into the water, or hide in corners, or get into 

 all sorts of scrapes." 



Now, as I do not think that Crede experto is a motto always to be 

 followed, I concluded to turn my birds out and see what would happen ; 

 so I slid up the door and ovit they flew boldly, alighting on the sand, 

 upon which they hopped about for some time, occasionally taking short 

 flights on to the wire-netting, or on to some pea-sticks stuck in a pot 

 in one corner of the aviary. After about an hour of this play, one of 

 them suddenly flew directly upwards to a branch some ten feet overhead 

 and joined a party of Munias, and within ten minutes the three other 

 birds had followed his example. The next morning, when I entered 

 the bird-room, I looked round, somewhat anxiously, to see what had 

 become of my new children ; I found the two cock birds singing their 

 ridiculous song, which, to my mind, resembles nothing so closely as it 

 does the sound made by the little woollen sheep on wheels, which one 

 sometimes sees children dragging along the pavement, dancing to their 

 hens with a peculiar zigzag sort of approach, and evidently quite at 

 home. 



Presently one little fellow flew down to a ledge close to me, looked 

 up in my face and uttered a sound like whek. I got him a rape 

 seedling, which he took immediately from my fingers, and after eating 

 it flew to the fountain, had a drink, then a good wash, and was shortly 

 afterwards joined by his companions, and many other inhabitants of the 

 aviary. 



So far from the Bengalees proving to be dull or helpless, I have 

 found them more fearless in perching upon the rim of the glass bowl, 

 into which the fountain falls, in venturing into the bowl itself, more 

 quick to comprehend the meaning of a seed-hopper, and stronger on 

 the wing than the majority of the small, newly imported finches. Before 

 many days were over, both pairs were busy building a nest in the 

 same box, where each hen laid one egg, hatched and reared it ; the 

 two hens sitting side by side, each on her own egg. This they did 

 twice in the same year, thus exactly doubling their numbers. The 

 following year, only one Bengalee left the nest, and was almost 

 immediately killed by Zebra Finches. Although many eggs were laid, 

 these were all that I reared ; and some mouths afterwards the Bengalees 



