GOLDEN-CROWNED OONUBE. 91 



did we want them for? We had heard, we said, that they would 

 breed with Canaries. Certainly, replied the dealer, button-holeing us, 

 after his custom, and looking up confidently into our face, don't you 

 know that is where the Lizards come from? Cinnamons, you mean, 

 we replied, somewhat maliciously we must confess. Of course, replied 

 the dealer, Cinnamons I meant; thus revealing his utter ignorance of 

 the subject: for, of course, if mules were obtainable, which we doubt, 

 between birds of such widely divergent habits as the Saffron Finch 

 and the Canary, although they closely resemble each other in appear- 

 ance, they would be sterile, as every hybrid is: so we had a quiet 

 laugh at our scientific and omniscient friend the dealer, whom we have 

 again and again conducted into similar pitfalls, to his momentary dis- 

 comfiture; but so overweening is the vanity, and so consummate the 

 self-complacency of the man, that he promptly recovers himself and 

 begins again, as amusingly as ever, to air the knowledge he does not 

 possess, with a pompous assumption of exclusive information that is 

 really "as good as a play." 



Well, we have wandered an immense distance from our Half -moons, 

 and must hark back again; observing, in conclusion, that when they 

 are fairly acclimatised they are very hardy and desirable birds, which 

 we can confidently recommend to the notice of amateurs in search of 

 an ornamental and agreeable addition to their collections. They are 

 exceedingly gentle and amiable, and may be caged with the tiniest 

 Astrilds and all the lesser Parrakeets and Love-birds, without fear of 

 danger accruing, to the small fry from the really formidable-looking 

 beaks of the Half-moon Parrakeets, which they are very expert in 

 exercising upon anything of a vegetable nature that may chance to 

 come in their way, so that they cannot be kept in any enclosure where 

 it is desired to grow shrubs and trees. 



