LILFORD HALL— THE SITTING-ROOM 135 



sunny bow-window was to be seen the Teydean 

 Chaffinch, a species only found in the high zone 

 of the Peak of Teneriffe, two Breeches Parrots, 

 and a Hoopoe. The Black-collared Grackles 

 had a distinguished stranger of their own kind 

 beside them in the Chestnut-winged Grackle, 

 the first bird brought alive to England, from the 

 neighbourhood of the monastery of Mar- Saba 

 near Bethlehem ; the favourite habitat of the 

 species being the caverns and fissures of the 

 cliffs in the gorge of the Brook Kedron. 



North America, South India, Brazil, and 

 Madeira furnished their quota of feathered 

 beauty in the Blue Jay and Blue Eobin from 

 across the Atlantic, the Indian Green-leaf bird, 

 the Brazilian Troupial, and the Madeiran 

 Blackcaps. Gould's Finches, the Pied Bock 

 Thrush, the Bulbul from North India, and 

 the White-crested Laughing Thrush from the 

 Himalaya, in common with their companions, 

 sang, chirped, or twittered according to their 

 vocal gift, and revealed sundry lovely mark- 

 ings of wing or tail as they plumed them- 

 selves in the sunshine. Of the Orange-flanked 

 Parroquets from Ecuador one had become 



