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season, at all events. Their own nest they built among the

sword - like leaves of a slender kind of aloe, most skilfully

arranged about 3ft. from the ground. Whilst sitting, they were

not in the least disturbed by my standing over them, and never

once left the nest when I went to look at them, but would gaze

up fearlessly at me with their shining black eyes. The eggs

were two in number, blue and speckled with red, but the nest

was destroyed by the gardener before the eggs were hatched,

much to my regret. A gentleman I knew in Quito had a pair of

D. lafresnayi which he caught when they entered his room

searching for insects as they did in mine. They quickly became

very tame, and would readily take flies from the fingers; after a

time they were allowed out to catch them for themselves. Flies

and bread crumbs formed their sole diet, and on the ordinary

foods for soft-billed birds they would undoubtedly thrive well.

They were very fond of bathing and kept themselves in the

pink of condition. This species is glossy black with lavender-

coloured shoulders, the whole length of the bird being 6 inches.

Their curiously-shaped beaks give them a very perky appearance.

Out of the fourteen known species coming from Northern and

Western South America, we found six of them inhabiting the

neighbourhood of Quito, namely aterrima, sittoides , humeralis,

lafresnayi , personata and indigotica. They are found only in

mountainous regions. We shot an albino specimen of aterrima

near Quito. The personata is a handsome bird, blue all over and

with a black mask, but the tiny indigotica is the prettiest of all,

being a much richer shade of blue than the well-known Indigo

birds from the States. The Diglossi range from Mexico down to

Bolivia.


Still another little frequenter of the gardens in Quito is

the Black-lieaded Siskin ( Chrysomitris capitalist They go in

flocks and fill the air with their sweet song. They seem to feed

chiefly 011 the seeds of flowering grasses, and I have seen them

fly up in clouds from the fields. I saw a few in cages, and

considering how well they sing it was quite a wonder they were

not more generally kept, and being seed eaters they would be

less trouble to their lazy owners. I was frequently told that the

reason they did not keep more birds was because they were so

much trouble to look after, and as for bringing up a nest of

young birds ! “ Why, nobody but a lunatic would take the


trouble.” The cages they used had only wire bottoms to them

to save the owners the trouble of cleaning them out, and the

state of the floor underneath was of minor importance in their



