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roosted close together on a thin horizontal reed near the top

of the cage. During the daytime they were ever on the move,

continually uttering a soft low note (a), which with the exception

of the loud and ringing call note, was the only sound they

ever made.


They were fed on mixed seeds, hard-boiled eggs, ants’ eggs

and occasionally some scraped beef, or some mealworms, but

for these latter, they did not show the marked partiality all

species of Tits and soft-billed birds generally do, and when eating

them, did so after the manner of a Finch, viz : well masticating

with their mandibles first, and not swallowing them whole, as

soft-billed birds ; nor, needless to say, picking them, while holding

them with their feet as Tits. Seeds they swallowed whole, and

did not shell, and when feeding, reminded me rather of a

gallinaceous bird, for on settling on a heap of food on the floor

(they always carefully emptied the dish on to the floor), they

would do a peculiar sort of backward shuffle, scattering the food

still more completely, and after turning their head to see what

they had uncovered, pick up a seed and dart off to repeat the

operation elsewhere.


With regard to their usual mode of progression, about which

some doubt apparently exists {b). I was at some pains to observe

them, and undoubtedly their most usual way is by short hops,

intermingled with a curious and peculiar shuffling walk, some¬

what like the strut of the Chaffinch, but with the head near the

ground. I have also a further note, written some years ago,

stating that it occassionally walks, with a similar motion to a

Wagtail, but less jerkily. I will not pledge my word to this last

statement, but it may be more accurate than my memory, as it

was written with the birds in front of me: so much for its habits

on the ground, where it certainly spent a considerable part of its

time ; when in reeds however, it hopped about quickly from one

to another, being, as before stated hardly ever still. The only

peculiarity worth noticing was the curious way in which it would



{a). This note is simply a low and soft form of a call-note, and if not answered is

repeated louder ; the uttering' of this call is I fancy to a great extent involuntary, and is

obviously to keep the flock together, when feeding among the thick cover afforded by the

reeds. It is perhaps interesting to compare the similar incessantly-uttered note of the

Scops Owl, which is uttered doubtless, also to enable them to find their friends in the thick

forest they inhabit ; and probably further observation would elicit the fact that most birds

living in thick cover, have some similar means of keeping together. It may be also noted

that very few of such birds have any distinctive markings, by which they might be

recognised on the wing, as is the case with some birds frequenting the open country,

e.g., Chaffinch, Bramble-finch, Linnet, etc. See also articles by myself on the Brambliug

Vol. iii., p. no.


( b) Vide Yarrell Brit. Birds, I., p. 518.



