60 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. III. 



ing contented with their own company, they will sit quietly in the cage 

 for sometimes a whole day, and again they are on the jump the whole 

 time and keep up a kind of wrangling noise among themselves. This 

 and the loud call something similar to that of the Great-crested Fly- 

 catcher, are the only sounds they make. They are very destructive to the 

 smaller inhabitants of the aviary which may incur their displeasure and 

 come within the reach of their powerful beaks. When fighting among 

 themselves they use their beaks as a sort of shield receiving the blows of 

 their opponent thereon. In confinement they eat ravenously of almost 

 any seed, but are partial to sunflower and hemp. With a few slight 

 variations in the olive green markings of the male, the plumage is the 

 same all the year. 



Pinicola enucleator. — The Pine Grosbeaks are of a gentle disposition,, 

 and never interfere with other birds, but seem to enjoy their com- 

 pany, and are as contented in a cage as in a tree after the first day. My 

 male bird would watch for my coming to feed him, and would hop out on 

 my hand on to my shoulder, and down into the yard where he would 

 hunt worms for a while and always went back to the cage door to get in. 

 If I did not let him out, he would mount to the highest perch and solace 

 himself with a song, which is very sweet but muffled. They are, how- 

 ever, very hard to keep in hot weather ; no matter how cool the cage may 

 be, they seem to take a kind of decline and do not last long. In the 

 summer and fall the red of the male turns to yellow and he looks like a 

 new species, with the red and yellow feathers mingling together. They 

 eat almost any kind of seed, but are partial to sunflower, hemp and buck- 

 wheat. They will also eat berries or fruit of any kind, or a piece of meat 

 or worm. 



Carpodacus purpureus.— The Purple Finch is tolerably well known 

 as a cage bird, and seems as contented in a cage as in the bush ; the 

 specimen which I kept was better contented in the cage than in a room. 

 They are very clumsy birds when let loose, and will fly against a pane 

 of glass or a wall, and falling to the floor remain there till picked up and 

 put in the cage, where they soon begin to arrange their feathers. The male 

 has a very beautiful song, and sings almost as well in a large cage as in 

 his native haunts ; they are very fond of sunflower and hemp seed, but 

 will eat almost anything given them in the shape of berries ; occasionally 

 they take a grub or worm. 



Acanthis linaria. — The gay little Redpoll is also well known as a 

 cage bird, and is quite happy in a small cage, but does not seem to get 

 along well in company with other birds ; they seem to be continually 

 eating, yet never seem to put on flesh, generally being very thin and poor 

 when dead. 



