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Mr. Gerald E. Rattigan,



at their manoeuvres, fiercely attack it. Zebra Finches and other

small birds they will relentlessly pursue and endeavour to catch

them in the air. I am certain, in fact, that they are never really

happy unless chasing something, and one can see by their every

movement, by the excited raising of their crests and continual

utterance of their call notes, for all the world like a pack of hounds

in full cry, how keenly they are enjoying their chase. I have

referred above particularly to the Red-crested variety, although in

my experience, the Yellow-billed and Pope Cardinals are bad enough

as regards chasing and injuring small Finches, though the mere

spirit of the chase does not appear to enter into them in quite

the same manner. The Virginian or Red Cardinals I have found

the least dangerous, and with the exception of one old cock who,

after leading a most exemplary existence, suddenly run amok and

did a good deal of mischief, I have never had any trouble with

them, and no bird to my knowledge has ever been injured in any

way by them. The safest Cardinal in a mixed company after

the Virginian, I have found to be the Green. This species always

appears to me to bear much the same relationship to the other

birds in the aviary that a stout and dignified policeman does to

the small boy. They are invariably devoted to their mates and

their young', and in this respect at all events, compare very favour¬

ably with many human parents, and interfere as little as possible

in the affairs of their neighbours, “ another quality that is very

much lacking in many humans which they might with advantage

cultivate,” unless they themselves or their young are interfered

with, when both parents will attack the aggressor with the utmost

determination and pugnacity. It was, I think, because of their

meddlesome ways, especially during the breeding season, when they

are wont to drive all the other inmates of an aviary about and

generally create a disturbance, without it is true doing any actual

damage to life or limb, that all my Green Cardinals took such a

violent dislike to all members of the Hyphcmtornis species of

Weaver, that it became utterly impossible to keep the two species

together in the same aviary. The whole family of Cardinals would

mob and very soon, if given a chance, literally batter to pieces any

Weaver of this species introduced into their aviary. These



