252 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



pair, and turned them out in a large cool aviary with about fifty 

 small birds of various kinds. During the whole of 189G S. albi- 

 gularis, with the exception of occasional wordy disputes with 

 S. gutturalis, was a pattern of amiability; but from the beginning 

 of April, 1897, he began to show his true character, disputing 

 incessantly with my Goldfinches, one of which he would have 

 murdered had I not fortunately come upon the scene just as he 

 commenced to tear at the feathers on its forehead, making it 

 scream with fright and pain. Within a fortnight from that date it 

 had killed two Amaduvade Waxbills, Sporceginthus amandava ; 

 one Green Amaduvade, Stictospiza formosa ; and four Zebra- 

 finches, Tceniopygia castanotis, one of these being a young bird 

 only two days out of the nest, the other three adults which were 

 breeding. The last victim had the skull entirely bared, the eyes 

 pecked out, the neck reduced to a mere thread, the base of the 

 wing cleared of coverts and quite raw, and the whole of one side 

 of the breast raw and bare of skin. I have removed that White- 

 throated Finch to an aviary where he will have the society of 

 birds twice his own size, chiefly African Weavers (Pyromelana, 

 Qaelea, &c). 



The history of the Green Singing-finch, Serinus icterus, is 

 similar, only it is rarely aggressive excepting in the breeding 

 season, when it fiercely attacks other Serins, Goldfinches, &c. 

 Canaries have no chance against it ; they are hunted down, and 

 the skin almost instantly torn back from the base of the beak. 



Of course many of the true Fringillidcz, such as the species of 

 Sycalis and Paroaria, are well known to be dangerous associates 

 for smaller and weaker birds ; but, until 1890, I was not aware 

 that Sycalis flaveola, savage and pugnaceous as it always is 

 towards males of its species, was capable of murdering its own 

 mate. However, after breeding from a pair in a large flight-cage 

 for several years, the hen refused to continue to accept her 

 husband's attentions ; whereupon he knocked her down, grasped 

 her firmly, tore off her scalp, and temporarily blinded her. 

 Hearing the screams of the wounded bird, I took her out, 

 applied vaseline to her wounds, and caged her separately ; in a 

 fortnight she recovered her sight, but at the end of a month I 

 found her dead. 



Among the smaller Ploceidce there are a few very spiteful birds, 



