100 Birds I Rave Kept. 



quently is, it is domed with grass stems: there are usually 

 two broods of four or five, each season. 



When wild this bird subsists upon seeds of all kinds, but 

 brings up its young ones on insect food, of which the parents 

 also partake during the breeding season. In the house it will 

 thrive upon any kind of seed, but gives the preference to 

 hemp and oats. It very soon becomes reconciled to captivity, 

 and grows quite tame: so much so that it may be taught to 

 go and come at command with the greatest facility. 



A pair will nest and bring up their young in a garden 

 aviary, where a male wUl mate with a common hen-Sparrow, 

 and produce hybrids. 



The Tree Sparrows are very hardy birds, and will live in 

 the house for a number of years. 



The sexes, as I have said, are undistinguishable while alive, 

 so that a number of these birds must be procured, on the 

 chance of there being a female among them, and when two 

 are observed to be paired they must be separated from the 

 rest, and given a large cage, or aviary, to themselves, when, 

 if supplied with suitable building materials, they will begin 

 to make a nest directly. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



THE BUDGEKIGAB. 



FOR years I longed to possess a pair of the bright green 

 Love-birds, as all small Parrots used to be formerly 

 called, which I had so often seen sporting in countless myriads 

 in the bush, sucking the nectar from the blossoms of the 

 gum-trees, but I longed in vain; for although the purser of 

 the ship I returned to Europe in had invested in some hun- 

 dreds of "Shell Parrots", which he hoped to dispose of at a 

 premium on his arrival in Liverpool, I scrupled to pay some- 



