AVICULTUBAL EXPERIENCES. 243 



Touching this acquirement of the colouring which has given 

 to this Bower-bird its very appropriate name, a most astounding 

 statement has been made by the Director of the Zoological Gar- 

 dens at Melbourne. He asserts " that the birds only come to 

 their full plumage in old age," and that " they die off shortly 

 after the change."* Such an idea is contrary to all our experience 

 of bird-life, and is certainly disproved in the case of those males 

 of the Satin Bower-bird which have assumed their full colouring 

 in England. 



In the true Finches (Fringillidce) , the methods of subduing 

 the females are very varied ; the Chaffinches and Saffron-Finches 

 (Fringilla and Sycalis) are very rough wooers ; they sing 

 vociferousl} r , and chase their hens violently, knocking them over 

 in their flight, pursuing and savagely pecking them even on the 

 ground ; but when once the hens become submissive, the males 

 change their tactics, and become for the time model husbands, 

 feeding their wives from the crop, after the fashion of the Serins, 

 and assisting in rearing the young. 



Although the hens of Saffron-Finches (Sycalis flaveola and 

 pelzehii) frequently pursue and peck unpaired cock birds, I do 

 not think they ever kill them, as one cock will often kill another, 

 by tearing back the scalp from the base of the beak ; but I have 

 known a cock S. flaveola to kill his wife, who had already brought 

 up two families, because she was disinclined to continue her 

 labours. 



The Serins (Serinus) seem to depend chiefly upon their song 

 to captivate their brides ; there is often a little chasing and 

 quarrelling on both sides, if the hen is not inclined to undertake 

 marital duties ; as soon as she is, she sits upon a perch quivering 

 or flapping her wings, and with her head thrown backwards. You 

 may notice the same thing with Sparrows and many other Finches 

 after they have once paired ; but the cock Sparrows have a 

 regular dance, with drooped wings and erected tail, which I have 

 observed in no other Fringillidce, though there may be other 

 typical Finches which dance to their mates. 



The Buntings chase their partners violently, singing all the 

 while, after the manner of the Saffron-Finches, but without the 

 same spite; and on more than one occasion I have had males of 



* A. T. Campbell's ' Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds,' p, 192, footnote. 



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