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ensued, except such as was perfectly reasonable and proper for

the due protection of the nest.


As the hen birds of both these species sing as freely and

as well as the cocks, I regard them as very desirable inmates of

a mixed aviary.


Again, the Greater or Ox-eye Tit is held up to reprobation,

and is particularly accused of being partial to the brains of

smaller birds. I have never found them so, and I am seldom

without representatives.


English Robins, too, have a bad reputation. I have no

personal experience that will justify this, except as among

themselves. I find it impracticable to keep two together, though

I am very desirous of establishing a pair if I can. A friend of

mine had some Canaries and small foreign birds killed by a

Robin, who was caught in flagrante delicto after several deaths

had been attributed to mice. I am of opinion that it had not a

sufficiently liberal allowance of animal food, and so was led to

murder to satisfy its natural cravings.


I have found the various Weavers terrible fellows among

themselves when in colour, but at other times they appear to be

inoffensive, and at all times they are indifferent to other species

of birds.


I have already recounted my experience of the Pin-tailed

Whydah ; he is, when in colour, a Turk among Armenians.


The Rosellas seem dangerous : a fine Mealy (a cock bird)

proving himself a perfect hawk, and a hen Red Rosella showed all

the same propensity, but through being injured in one wing she

could not become formidably aggressive. By the way, she has

just died, the oldest bird in the aviary, having been introduced

in 1889.


The mode of attack of the Parrot tribe is peculiar. The

aggressor creeps quietly up behind its victim and seizes it by

the leg, which, with a single nip it either breaks or bites off

altogether. This is apparently only the playfulness of the tribe,

for they indulge in the joke on any bird that is careless enough

to allow them to approach, and without any indication of

personal antipathy. Young birds fresh out of the nest fall an

easy prey to this method of attack. Budgerigars, Grey- and

Red-headed Rove Birds, R.osellas, and Ringnecks (all of which

I class under the general name of Parrots) all amuse themselves

in this way ; but I have not observed it in the Cockatiels—which

are absolutely inoffensive—nor in the Moustache Parrakeets.



