THE WHITE-HEADED MANNIKIN. 247 



one sees beak and throat in most industrious motion, but which is not 

 accompanied, as in the Ribbon Finch, by an up and down hopping 

 dance, but only by a gentle, and almost automatic movement of the 

 head from side to side. I, however, strove in vain to hear this song." 



Dr. Russ then continues to expatiate upon the zeal with which 

 the bird sings, and the impossibility of hearing it. Well, in an aviary 

 with a sloping roof, it can be quite distinctly heard : it is, like the 

 song of the other Oriental Mannikins, a very poor performance ; a 

 vibration, such as one might produce by springing a wire fixed upright 

 in a wooden block, a half metallic humming, followed by about four 

 sounds like the creak of a boot when the wearer steps deliberately (to 

 prolong the sound) and lifts his foot suddenly at the end ; finally, an 

 extremely thin whistle, only to be imitated by a person with perfect 

 front teeth : I have heard it many hundreds of times. 



After this performance, the male bird generally gives the female 

 a peck, as much as to say "What do you think of that?" and she, 

 apparently offended by his familiarity, raises herself promptly and faces 

 him : then each hammers the others beak three or four times, the hen 

 flies to another branch, the cock follows, sidles up to her, and both 

 relapse into silence and stupidity, perhaps, for some minutes, after 

 which the whole performance is repeated. After pairing also, there is 

 frequently a stand-up mimic fight between the sexes ; but the disputes 

 of these birds, even when earnestly engaged in, seem never to be in 

 the slightest degree injurious : only when defending their nests do 

 they become dangerous, using their powerful beaks like picks upon 

 the heads of their actual or supposed adversaries. 



Illustrations from skins of specimens formerly living in the author's 

 aviaries. 



