124 A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS 



notes — especially the characteristic and beautiful chord- 

 like strains — are most distinctly recognisable. 



We once had in our aviary a pair of zebra-finches 

 [TcEuiopygia castanotis) whose love for each other, 

 even amid a crowd of affectionate couples of avadavats, 

 was remarkable to behold. They were literally 

 inseparable both in action and in repose. The aviary 

 is in a large open wind-swept verandah, where the air 

 is as pure as that of the field, so that we very seldom 

 have a death from disease ; but unfortunately some- 

 thing went wrong with the hen zebra-finch, and she 

 died. After her death, the poor unhappy little male 

 sat mourning for a week, in the little chosen corner 

 where he used to nestle beside his mate, and then 

 he too died. Of course, it may be said that he had 

 caught some infection from his dying mate, but in 

 that case there ought to have been some spread of 

 the disease among the thirty other little finches living 

 in the same cage ; which there was not. 



Here is another incident showing that birds like 

 human beings, know what love and constancy and 

 grief are. In a pond in our grounds we keep a few 

 wildfowl, and among them there was once a pair of 

 black coots [Fulica at7'a). We are accustomed to 

 feed them every morning with grain and bread, but 

 otherwise — except that they are pinioned — they live 

 under almost natural conditions. One morning the 

 coots, who had always been particularly eager about 



