Favourite Foreign Birds. 



the year .round. The sexes are exactly alike in 

 appearance, but the female may be known by her 

 somewhat smaller size and less exuberantly boisterous 

 deportment. 



As these birds are extremely pugnacious during the 

 breeding season, they should not be lodged with others 

 smaller and more defenceless than themselves. The 

 nest is built of hay, fibres, and roots, in any convenient 

 bush ; and the eggs, which vary from three to five in 

 number, are small for the size of the bird, and not 

 unlike those of a blackbird in colour and markings. 

 The young can be readily reared on ants' eggs and 

 cockroaches, or any kind of insects available. Occa- 

 sionally the male evinces cannibalistic tendencies 

 sometimes with regard to the eggs, which he will 

 devour as soon as laid, and sometimes with respect 

 to newly-hatched young, which he will destroy. In 

 such a case he should be removed after the first egg 

 has been laid, when the female will sit and rear her 

 brood alone the remaining eggs of the batch proving, 

 as a rule, to be fertile. Incubation lasts from eleven 

 to twelve days, and there are generally two broods in 

 the season the first in May or June; the second in 

 August. In their native country, of course, the seasons 

 are reversed ; but the, birds readily accommodate them- 

 selves to their altered circumstances. 



I have found them to be extremely destructive to 

 plants of all kinds. Some of their eggs which I have 

 placed under canaries, were duly hatched; but the 

 young died in a few days, apparently from inability on 

 the part of their 'foster-parents to feed them properly; 

 but no doubt if the eggs were placed in the nest of 



