American cousin, the Blue Robin ; and the disposition of the

color is the same. If for the blue head, back, and tail of the

Blue Robin you substitute ashen grey; if instead of the red

breast and dusky throat of the Blue Robin you substitute a white

bib and a primrose breast and underparts, then you have Master

Yellow Robin. The eye is very full and dark, the beak black

and shortish with hairs round the base ; feet dark lead color.

The hen can be told from the cock by her wings. In the cock

there is a greyish, white bar; in the hen it is slate color. My

couple are very affectionate, and always follow each other about;

and now they are busy feeding each other with mealworms,

which seems to foreshadow matrimonial ventures.


For a time I kept them in a cage, as the weather was

bitterly cold ; but in a perfectly unheated room, where the water

was nightly frozen into a solid block of ice. They did not

appear to mind the cold a bit, and always took their tub with

praiseworthy regularity.


I feed them on a mixture of my own invention. If any¬

one asks me how I mix it, I reply, as did a certain great painter,

“ With my brains.” It suits them admirably, as they show by

their trim coats and sprighty ways.


They are absurdly tame, though out in a big garden aviary.

When I go in and sit down, they flit about pretending an intense

unconsciousness of me and my belongings, until they have

satisfied themselves that I am not inimical; then they become

bold, not to say impudent, and hop and peck about in search of

unconsidered trifles, and evidently intend that you should

consider them one of the family.


At your departure the cock calls his mate, and the last bit

of vitality, I see is the couple inspecting my remains and com¬

paring notes—complimentary or otherwise—on my habits and

ways of life generally.


From their dress and manner, I should suppose them to

have been, in a prior state of existence, connected with the

Quaker interest.


They are at present living in sweet companionship with a

pair of English Blackcaps and about lialf-a-dozeu Many-colors.

This latter is not a tarradiddle !


Some writers tell us that all Parrakeets “ destroy every

green thing which grows upon the face of the earth.” They are

“ incompatible” (I think that is the correct scientific term) with



