10 
NATURE NOTES. 
remain there quite quiet until driven away. After he had 
moulted and assumed his full plumage he commenced to sing, 
the edge of the sugar basin or the back of a chair being his 
favourite perch, and he would sit and sing until one had serious 
fears that he would injure his little throat. 
Pitying his lonely condition I thought I would provide him 
with a mate, so I procured a little cheverel — whom we named 
“ Sally ” — the smallest goldfinch I had ever seen. At first she 
was put into another cage, and hung some distance away from 
Peter, but he soon discovered her and at once commenced a 
spirited flirtation. He quite forsook me. He now spent all his 
time on Sall}'’s cage, feeding and caressing her through the 
wires. After a few days she was put into his cage, and con- 
sequently had the same liberty as he did, the door being nearly 
alwa5'S open. I never succeeded in gaining Sally’s confidence 
as I had gained Peter’s, and though she would fearlessly hop 
about the table and pick up crumbs, I could never induce her to 
come on my hand or shoulder. But never did wife idolise a 
husband as Sally did Peter. When he was singing she would 
sit quietly by him, with her head turned a little aside, as if 
listening intently, and when his song was finished she would 
wag her little body from side to side, and chirrup out her own 
little song — she had a pretty one of her own — as if to say “ Isn’t 
m}- husband a fine fellow!” When spring-time came I supplied 
them with nesting materials, and had dreams of home-bred gold- 
finches, but in that I was disappointed. Beyond carrying some 
of the material from place to place they never exhibited any 
sign of nesting, and though they would often sit feeding and 
caressing each other the}^ never made a serious attempt to set 
up house-keeping on their own account. 
Like many other couples they had their little quarrels. Some- 
times there would be a terrific chase round and round the room, 
and a chattering that would have done credit to a famil}" of jays. 
They always roosted as far from each other as the cage would 
permit — one at each end of the perch. Peter believed in the 
earl3'-to-bed proverb, but Sail}' was of a more dissipated dis- 
position, and preferred later hours. But when she did retire 
she always wanted the corner Peter had chosen, and in spite 
of Peter’s protest she would evict him without compunction. 
Sometimes after he had comfortably resettled himself she would 
assert her sex’s perogative of changing her mind, and deem his 
place the best, and proceed to evict him again. 
Poor Sally, her fate was a sad one ! One morning this 
autumn we found her dead. She had somehow managed during 
the night to squeeze herself through the hole in her cage in to the 
water trough, and, unable to get back, had died — probably as 
much from fright as drowning, for we found her little body quite 
out of the water, and dry. I thought the loss would be a heavy 
one to Peter, but — I almost hesitate to tell it, for it may be 
quoted as an example of the callousness of the masculine gender 
