CAXAUIES AND CAGE-V1RDS. 



towards the chest and sides. The beak is a coral red, and a broad red line passes 

 from the root of the beak through the eyes. The tail is dark brown, rather long, 

 the central feathers being longest, and wedge shaped. When the bird is excited or 

 singing, the tail is spread fan-like. The male and female are alike in colors. In 

 the aviary the bird is cheerful and lively, keeps in good plumage, and lives many 

 years. He devotes a great deal of time to arranging his own plumage and that of 

 his mate, using his tiny beak so carefully and caressingly on the latter, that she 

 generally takes a nap until the spell is broken by his desire for exercise or food. 

 The pairs arc usually industrious nest-builders if suitable materials such as the 

 more pliable dried grasses and deer's hair are furnished. If given a room for 

 breeding purposes, they will build nests, either on a shrub, in a nest-box, or even on 

 the floor. They have often been bred in captivity, and will rear their young on 

 dried and soaked ants' eggs and hard-boiled egg. 



The Cordon-bleu Finch is one of the most attractive of the aviary-birds, as "he 

 possesses showy, unusual colors, and is a delightful singer, tame, sprightly, and 

 playful. The bird is very prettily colored, being pale brownish gray on the back ; 

 the face, throat, chest, and tail being pale sky blue ; the cheeks of the male are 

 ornamented with a patch of crimson. The female is similar in color, but the 

 crimson patch on the cheeks is absent. 



The Cordon-bleu, like the other Waxbills, is sociable, and is so fond of his 

 mate, that, if separated from her, he gives utterance to very pathetic, agonizing 

 cries, that cease only when she is re-united to him. Owing to the peculiar marking 

 of the male, the birds are often called the Crimson-eared Waxbill. The pairs 

 seldom will build the nest in a box, but prefer to construct a nest entirely of their 

 own, selecting for this purpose a bush, or branches h'xed to the wall of a room or 

 the highest part of an aviary. The young should be fed the same as other Waxbill 

 nestlings. 



The male Cordon-bleu will seize any small piece of thread or cotton twine in his 

 beak, fly to the side of his mate, and sing song after song ; while she stands almost 

 resting her ear against his beak, so not a note may be lost. Certainly, this is highly 

 commendatory listening ; and so the male continues to sing his most charming songs, 

 ceasing only when hunger calls him away. 



The Double-banded Pinch, compared with the brilliant hues of the high-colored 

 Finches, seems at first sight very modestly attired. Blakston describes the bird as 

 follows: " A pure silvery white is the ground-color. The feathers are delicately 

 pencilled with fine black lines or bars, which, when seen at a distance, give the bird 

 a. light silver-gray appearance ; but, examined more closely, the plumage of this 

 Finch, one of the smallest of the Australian Finches, is of great beauty and marvel- 

 lous delicacy. The face, throat, breast, and the lower part of the body, are white. 

 A narrow black line, which crosses the throat, extends from ear to ear. A second 

 black line, across the lower breast, runs parallel with the former, and gives the bird 

 the name of Double-banded Finch. The wings are black ; but the feathers have 

 rows of white square spots, which on the dark ground appear something like a 

 trellis. The Germans have named this bird for this reason, 'Lattice-wing.' The 

 beak is of silver-gray tint, and the tail is black." 



The female is marked exactly like the male. Very hard aloe fibre furnished to a 



