70



Miss D. Hamilton,



day I found the cock dead ! He had looked so well, and had

been singing cheerily so it was a great disappointment. I sent

his body for an autopsy, and the answer came, “ I fear your bird

succumbed to a prolonged fast.” He had been plentifully

supplied with spray millet and canary seed, but apparently he

preferred death to anything but paddy-rice. I got some paddy-

rice for the hen, but she died in three days from fractured skull.

Almost in despair I went again to my friend Robert Green. He

had a pair of acclimatised Pintail Nonpareils who would eat

canary seed or anything. They were very beautiful to look at,

but were wild, and dull, sitting perfectly still by the hour

together unless I went near their cage when they would flutter

wildly. I fed them on paddy-rice, oats, canary seed and spray

millet, and they seemed quite well until after they had moulted,

when the cock died for no reason at all, and the hen got a sort

of cramp or paralysis in her feet. I have not tried Pintail

Nonpareils again, much as I admire their beauty.


My favourite bird is my Parrot-finch—parti} 7 because I had

waited for one so long, but mainly on account of his manifold

merits. When I first saw the one at the Zoo, I quite lost my

heart to him, and I really think nothing but the certainty of being

caught in the act, prevented me from carrying him off, cage and

all (he was in a small cage in the Parrot-liouse then) for I had

searched for a Parrot-fincli all over London in vain. At last,

when I opened my Avicultural Magazine , there actually was a

Parrot-finch for sale. I could hardly believe my eyes ! Not

another word did I read until I had written asking for that bird,

and had posted the letter. Then followed a time of agonized

suspense. Perhaps some other member had received his maga¬

zine sooner than I—or one had telegraphed instead of writing.

But no; it was all right for me. Other members had written for

the bird, but my letter arrived first, and he was mine. High as

were my expectations it is putting it mildly to say that he has

exceeded them. His brilliant beauty, his intelligence, tameness,

and hardiness are, I should think, unequalled by any bird of his

size. As soon as I had loosed him from his tiny travelling cage,

he began singing his silvery little song, and he very soon dis¬

covered that he had only to fly to the front of his cage and



