on the two Nonpareils.



327



only. To return to our subject—the Nonpareil has a fairly good

song, and will get on with most birds of his size, except his own

species and his relative the Indigo-bird (Cyanospiza cyanea ) ; he

would probably dislike another cousin, the Rainbow Bunting

(C. leclancheri), even worse. This species should always have

fruit and insects—or some substitute for them—as well as seed.

I noticed one I kept was keen on apple and on inga seed. He

did not fight with an Indigo in the same cage, but gave way

to him, only asserting himself in the important matter of meal¬

worms.


The Pintailed Nonpareil (Erythrwa ptasina ) is also well

named, for, although the two finches are not nearly related, the

American belonging to the Bunting group and the Asiatic to

the Grassfinches, there is certainly a resemblance in their liberal

endowment of colour, while the long sharp tail of the Eastern

Nonpareil is a very striking character. The hen in this species,

differs more from the cock than in the original Nonpareil, for

though the red is less completely suppressed in her, remaining

on the tail, though replaced by buff on the breast, the tail itself,

though pointed, is quite short; she is, in fact, a stumpy ugly

little bird altogether.


The coincidental resemblance between the two birds goes

further yet; for in some Pintail Nonpareils the red of the plumage

is replaced by yellow, as in the cage-moulted male of the true

kind. In the yellow-tailed Pintails, however, this aberration of

colour is found in the wild bird; it occurs in both sexes, and

specimens may be found in any large series of live birds or skins.

These resemblances, however, taken together, are very curious ;

caricaturing the theorizer on insects, we might say that the true

Nonpareil, scarce yet reasonably easy to keep, “mimics” the

very common but very difficult Pintail Nonpareil to escape the

clutches of the aviculturist! This difficulty of keeping is a sad

drawback to the lovely Pintail, a bird absolutely unrivalled in the

feathered world for its combination of brilliance of hue with the

delicacy of tinting which rivals the lovely colours of the rainbow

or prism. Its cheapness is due to the fact that it is a very com¬

mon bird in the East Indies—a common pest, in fact, in the

rice-field ; but it is a champion dier, and has a way of looking



