60 THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
generally domesticated among the feathered favourites 
of the French inhabitants of New Orleans. The 
negroes make a traffic of them, carrying great num- 
bers to market for sale ; these have been taken in 
the neighbouring plantations, and are easily tamed ; 
and it is supposed, that were the same attention paid 
to these lovely birds as there is to the canary, there 
is but little doubt they would breed with equal fa- 
cility, and become equally numerous throughout 
Europe. Their nests are generally built in orange 
hedges, sometimes on the lower branches of the 
orange tree, and they have been found even on the 
common bramble-bush. These nests are composed 
of dry grass, interwoven with the silk of caterpillars, 
lined with hair, over which, a second lining of the 
soft fine roots of plants is neatly attached, making 
beautiful warm habitations for the forthcoming little 
families that are to occupy them. The hen lays four 
or five eggs, and it is supposed has two broods in 
the year. 
The celebrated naturalist, Marmaduke Tunstall, 
Esq., makes mention of these birds in his time, as 
having been brought to this country, and that two 
pairs of them had made their nests, and laid their 
