THE BRAZILIAN BULLFINCH. 79 



the reason its feathers had all dropped out; when I 

 came to think of it, all its congeners from Brazil are 

 quite hardy, the Cardinals, Saffron Finches, and various 

 Conures and Parrots : Why then should the Bicudo be 

 more delicate than the others? Apparently it was not, 

 and I made up my mind to turn it out into the garden- 

 aviary, where I had no doubt it would do well, the 

 time being summer, and the weather warm and fine. 

 I did so, and the bird seemed to enjoy the change 

 immensely, commencing by taking a prolonged bath, 

 when he made himself so wet that he must have 

 thought he had lost his feathers again, for he was, at 

 first, quite unable to fly, or even to rise from the ground. 

 However, after a while he got on some sticks that were 

 low down and from that vantage point hopped to the 

 higher perches, where a few vigorous shakes and many 

 dabs at his feathers dried him thoroughly, and gave 

 him a glossy and smooth appearance I had never noticed 

 on him before. 



Then he really sang, so that my Brazilian friend 

 was right after all and the Bicudo was a splendid per- 

 former I am quite sorry I cannot find or remember 

 the poetry, in English, French and Portuguese, that the 

 bird's melody inspired my friend to write about him. 



"After sorrow cometh joy", someone has said, (I am 

 a poor hand at remembering names and do not know 

 from whom I have borrowed the above quotation, but 

 that does not much matter, for the converse was true 



