74 Song Birds. 



10. When imported birds breed in England, it is 

 very amusing to witness their determined adherence 

 io the ways of their own land. There is a most curious 

 instance of this given in Jesse's Gleanings, of an 

 African bird one of the Cardinal Grosbeaks which 

 was put into the same cage with a hen Goldfinch, in 

 order to try if they would breed together; they did so, 

 and the hen having begun to sit, the tropical bird took 

 .-a quantity of grass and covered her up with it. This 

 he did regularly every day at eleven o'clock (at which 

 time the sun came upon the cage), apparently for the 

 purpose of screening the hen from the heat, and it was 

 supposed that this attention was usual in the country 

 from which the bird was brought. 



Parrots, again, will insist on "a hollow tree " 

 wherein to form their nest ; the most successful broods 

 are therefore reared in old barrels half full of saw- 

 dust, and with holes cut in the sides. 



Goldfinches cannot bear building low down in a 

 room ; about the top of the curtain pole is the lowest 

 level that they like. Many of the English wild birds, 

 too, often will not build in an open cage (the Gold- 

 finches generally, amongst others, will not), but they 

 will build in a thick hedge of fir, or box, or gorse, if 

 ihis is arranged for them in a room, or in an aviary 

 cage, affording sufficient space. 



Having made these stray remarks on the subject 

 generally, I will now proceed to give a f6w rules as to 



